Deaths in the America : Sales of e-cigarettes collapse

Sales of e-cigarettes have fallen by up to a fifth. The cause is apparently reports of deaths and illnesses in the America, which the manufacturers’ association criticises as “abridged”.

The reports on deaths and illnesses of e-cigarette consumers in the USA have apparently caused a slump in sales for manufacturers in Germany: In the second half of 2019, sales dropped by ten to twenty percent, the German Association of the Tobacco Industry and Novel Products (BVTE) announced on Wednesday. Sales of tobacco cigarettes remained almost constant in 2019.

The association described the reporting of incidents following the consumption of e-cigarettes in the USA as “abridged”: consumers in the USA consumed e-cigarettes adulterated with THC oils and containing vitamin E acetate. Both substances are prohibited for e-cigarettes in the EU. Before that, sales figures had been in the double-digit growth range for years.

The Federal Office of Statistics presented figures for the entire year 2019 on Wednesday: According to these figures, 0.3 percent more cigarettes were taxed than in 2018. Since 1991 the amount of taxed cigarettes has almost halved. In the same period, however, the sales of all other tobacco products increased significantly.