A Brief History of Disposable Vape

Disposable vape has exploded in the year 2021. Compared with 2020, disposable vaping accounts for over 60% of electronic cigarettes markets. While the growth rate of the open pod systems has slowed down significantly in the past two years. Customs data shows that since April this year, more and more open pod system tycoons and manufacturers have joined the disposable e-cigarette market wishing to make a positive difference.

Disposable electronic cigarettes aren’t new in the e-cigarette industry in the past two years. In fact, they have been launched more than 10 years ago. While it wasn’t a hit back then since vapors worldwide preferred mechanical vape that produced bigger vape amounts. Right after that, POD and POD MOD are more prevalent. Everything changed after JUUL -- the famous American e-cigarette brand came on the stage. In just 3 years, JUUL, as the pioneer of closed pods, quickly occupied half of the e-cigarettes market in the United States and was acquired by Altria Group in 2018, with a market value of US$12.8 billion, which has become an industry story. While fame attracts criticism easily. Because JUUL is widely used by American teenagers and most of them are indulged in e-cigarettes. The US Congress recognized the seriousness of the situation, so in September 2019, the Trump administration announced the Flavor Ban and forcibly removed all fruit flavors of JUUL, leaving only mint and tobacco flavors for sale.

There was still something to do around the 10-page Flavor Bans since the ban did not explicitly state that it included disposable e-cigarettes and their fruit flavors. While everyone was still in shock of JUUL being removed from the market, a brand new electronic cigarette brand Puffbar quickly became popular in the US electronic cigarette market. Same old trick by targeting American teenagers, Puffbar made its way out. It must be noted that the number of American youth e-cigarette smokers has reached 4 million in 2019. The number of this consumer group is higher than that of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. While JUUL has about 10 different flavors, Puffbar invented over 30 fruit flavors, which is a lot.

Having developed over half a year, Puffbar can’t be more popular. It is said that Puffabr sold as much as 700,000 cigarettes per day at its craziest, and almost every offline e-cigarette store sells Puffbar. But in the end, it could not escape the fate of being punished. In July 2020, the FDA forcibly removed all flavors of Puffbar . From the falling of JUUL and Puffbar, we can see that the US FDA only focuses on typical examples. After all, there are still a considerable number of small and medium-sized disposable e-cigarette brands active in the US e-cigarette market, such as Hyde, Flum, Freeton, and so on. The current trend is that disposable e-cigarette brands led by Puffbar have avoided the risk of FDA policy regulation by using synthetic nicotine E-liquid. Honestly, this is a pretty good punch back to the FDA authorities by Puffbar.

If the Flavor Ban cannot eliminate the hidden danger of teen addiction to disposable e-cigarettes, PMTA certainly works as another defense. In October 2021, the FDA authorized the first PMTA licensed e-cigarette in human history -- Vuse Solo (a product of British American Tobacco) and its two tobacco flavors, please note that only two tobacco flavors have been approved. And FDA has not stated a certain date for reviewing for those remaining e-cigarette brands. Therefore, some e-cigarette brands still sell fruit-flavored products, some others are following Puffbar to use synthetic nicotine E-liquidto avoid current laws and regulations. As for how the disposable e-cigarette market will develop in 2022, we cannot make a judgment today. After all, who knows what will happen in the future.