BEIJING — It wasn’t until his father, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer that Hon Lik finally kicked his own three-pack-a-day habit. The 52-year-old pharmacist and inventor found inspiration in the experience: the electronic cigarette.
It doesn’t burn at all. Instead, it uses a small lithium battery that atomizes a liquid solution of nicotine. What you inhale looks like smoke, but it’s a vapor similar to the “stage fog” used in theatrical productions. It even has a tiny red light at the tip that lights up with each drag, just like the ember of a real cigarette.
“It’s a much cleaner, safer way to inhale nicotine,” said Hon, blowing curlicues of e-smoke as he showed off the cigarette in his office. (He says he doesn’t smoke at all anymore and “lights up” only for such demonstrations.)
This year, his company is planning a big push in the United States. A disposable e-cigarette called the Jazz ($24.95 for the equivalent of five packs) is due to soon hit 7-Elevens in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Many rival versions, all made in China, are making their way to the U.S., sold mostly over the Internet by small marketing firms.
