Employers tired of seeing their employees waste time standing outside smoking cigarettes do have an alternative – electronic cigarettes, which advocates say are far cheaper and safer than regular cigarettes.
Steve Bayonne – who founded Cigotine LLC in Providence in January 2009 – and his staff are ready to make presentations to businesses about the benefits of his product, Cigotine, which he said emits no harmful smoke, no obnoxious odors and contains none of the dangerous chemicals that cigarettes do.
“We will present the product to businesses, that’s a market we attack, and some companies accept Cigotine for employees’ use at their desks,” Bayonne told Providence Business News. “Managers at those companies have reported increased productivity.”
Electronic cigarettes were invented by a man in China, Hon Lik, who smoked three packs of regular cigarettes each day. Most cigarettes cost less than $1 per pack at the time in China. Lik’s father had died of lung cancer and he wanted to come up with a safe alternative for his own and others’ use. The first patent, awarded in 2003, went to SBT Co. Ltd. in Beijing, where Lik was a vice president, a company now controlled by Golden Dragon Group Ltd.
Electronic cigarettes promise smokers the exact same experience as smoking a regular cigarette. “Smoke when you want, where you want” is a compelling headline on Cigotine’s website (www.cigotine.com). In general, e-cigarettes work this way: when the smoker of an electronic cigarette inhales, the battery-powered device releases a measured amount of nicotine in the form of a vapor, which is similar to smoke but quickly evaporates. There is no burning involved, so there are no ashes and no danger of fire.
After a flurry of publicity, the production and sale of electronic cigarettes took off like a rocket. Trade groups and e-cigarette makers claim $100 million in annual sales in the United States alone as of 2009. The international trade portal Alibiba.com in 2009 reported 60,000 products were being marketed by 600 wholesalers worldwide, with 70 percent coming from China and Hong Kong. In the United States, 83 distributors were listed. Bayonne said his product is manufactured in China.
Cigotine includes a built-in, rechargeable lithium battery and, most importantly, is made of two sections, rather than the three sections of other e-cigarettes. The atomization chamber is built into the nicotine-filled cartridge, and so is replaced with the cartridge. Reused atomizers, Bayonne explained, can become clogged, resulting in reduced performance and taste.
One Cigotine cartridge is equivalent to two packs of regular cigarettes, whereas other products offer one pack per cartridge. Cigotine has four grades of cartridges containing different amounts of nicotine, from 16 mgs to none, in tobacco and menthol flavors.
Regular cigarettes, according to Bayonne, can contain as many as 4,000 various chemicals, whereas his product has no more than 10 or 20 that he said are not harmful, either to users or those around them, and are contained in numerous household products.
A list of Cigotine ingredients, available on the website, comprises six chemicals including megastigmatrienone, which is found in grapefruit juice, dimethylpyrazine for flavoring and linalool, a terpene that has anti-stress effects and is found in many flowers and spice plants.
Cigotine cost is about $110 for a deluxe starter kit, with a pack of five replacement cartridges – which Bayonne said is equivalent to a carton of regular cigarettes – selling for $15. As of July 1, a pack of brand-name cigarettes in New York City rose to $11, due to new state taxes as well as municipal taxes. In Rhode Island, average cost is between $8 and $9 per pack.
However, not everyone is convinced of the product’s benefits.
Electronic cigarettes have been banned in some countries, such as Mexico, and the state of New Jersey prohibits indoor use, in both cases because officials do not believe enough testing has been done to assure the product’s safety. Advocates like Bayonne maintain that such bans are solely due to the influence of big tobacco companies, as well as government’s need for revenue from cigarette taxes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has raised concerns about potential health risks associated with e-cigarettes but currently does not regulate the product. •
COMPANY PROFILE
Cigotine LLC
OWNER: Steve Bayonne
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Markets electronic cigarettes
LOCATION: 151 Broadway, Providence
EMPLOYEES: 10
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2009
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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