Don't miss
Home   >   News   >   E-Cigs Boom As Cigarette Companies Worry About Future

E-Cigs Boom As Cigarette Companies Worry About Future

Big tobacco’s latest buzz is not a regular cigarette, and doesn’t even have tobacco.  Rather companies – and smokers – are paying big bucks and turning to technology to satisfy cravings, as the industry’s future hangs in the air.

FOX News Radio’s Bill Vitka reports:

Audio clip:

It’s not just people who want to quit smoking who turn to electronic cigarettes, it’s big tobacco.  Lorillard is buying a maker of electronic cigarettes, Blu E-Cigs, for $135 million. Lorillard is shopping as the FDA weighs a possible crackdown on mentholated cigarettes, which represent as much as 90% of revenue at the Newport brand maker.

E-cigarettes are no more than a fraction of the $100 billion U.S. tobacco market, but they now account for at least $250 million dollars in annual sales.  While the FDA says it plans to regular e-cigarettes – warning they may pose a health danger – the number of Americans who use them has quadrupled in one year.

Bill Vitka, FOX News Radio.

One Comment

  1. vapegrl

    April 27, 2012 at 4:17 am

    It will be very interesting to see how the purchase of Blu Cigs will affect the electronic cigarette industry as a whole. Personally, as an e-smoker, I'm not particularly happy about Big Tobacco getting in and meddling. After all, these are the same companies that seemingly find it impossible to market a cigarette that contains nothing but tobacco in paper. What are they going to add to e-cigarette liquids?