Smoke: Big Tobacco's fightback

by Simon Akam

In 2003, the Chinese scientist Hon Lik invented the first e-cigarette and Big Tobacco dismissed it as a fad. A decade later, the $800bn-a-year industry finally saw the threat posed by a growing subculture of vapers and moved in to buy it. Now, armed with research and development facilities in a race to produce the best e-cig possible, the tobacco companies are their way to finding their industry's holy the safer cigarette

29 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2015

About the author

Simon Akam held a Gap Year Commission in the British Army before reading English Literature at Oxford University. He later won a Fulbright scholarship to study at Columbia Journalism School. After graduation from Columbia Simon worked at The New York Times and subsequently spent several years in West Africa as a freelance correspondent for Reuters and the Economist.