CNBC is to air a special report, hosted by Carl Quintanilla, examining the vaping industry and its meteoric rise in recent years.
On Monday, July 15th at 10pm ET/PT, CNBC presents “Vaporized: America’s E-Cigarette Addiction,” a comprehensive look inside the rapidly growing and highly controversial vaping industry, a market expected to hit $9 billion by the end of 2019.
Reported by Carl Quintanilla, the hour-long documentary explores the contentious debate over e-cigarettes. While some believe their sales should be restricted to prevent teens from vaping, others claim stricter regulation could cost the lives of many adult cigarette smokers who use e-cigarettes to help them quit.
CNBC gets unprecedented access to Juul Labs, the upstart e-cigarette company whose innovative product design and marketing have made it the vaping industry leader. Quintanilla speaks with Juul executives about its remarkable growth as well as its reputation for making the most popular vaping products among adolescents.
Among the most pressing concerns over vaping is its overwhelming popularity among teenagers, which critics attribute to the industry’s shrewd exploitation of social media marketing, as well as a staggering array of enticing flavors. Quintanilla reports in-depth on the efforts of the government, parents and schools to stop vaping’s explosive growth, and also profiles high school-aged vapers from across the country and a young social media influencer who performs vape tricks online and says he earns his living reviewing e-cigarette products.
Quintanilla’s reporting takes him into the heart of the vaping epidemic in West Virginia. The state with the unfortunate distinction of having the nation’s highest adult smoking rate also has a hard-earned expertise in respiratory illness stemming from its long experience with Black Lung Disease among coal miners. Researchers at West Virginia University are among the first to look holistically at vaping behavior, and offer substantial evidence in the case against e-cigarettes.
Quintanilla also travels to London where the U.K. government openly promotes vaping as a means to stop adult smoking. A prominent researcher tells him that, in the absence of long-term human studies on e-cigarettes, smokers should opt for them to avoid the certain dangers of cigarettes.
“Vaporized: America’s e-Cigarette Addiction” provides a timely guide to the vaping phenomenon. In compelling fashion, it explains how and why this highly addictive and controversial habit has become so big so fast.