Smokers are switching to electronic cigarettes at a lightning pace and the reasons are all different, depending on which smoker you ask. There seems to be a trend toward three main reasons, however.

“One of the biggest reasons that I see people switching to them is the fact that they're just less messy than traditional cigarettes,” says William Ellis of E Cigarette Junction. “I grew up in a house of smokers and there were always full ash trays around with lighters and whatnot. And the smell was always there... not so with e-cigarettes. You hardly even know they're there.”

Electronic cigarettes don't produce ashe or smoke, since the products don't combust tobacco. This means less mess to clean up when using them, not only with less ashes and cigarette butts, but also less packaging to throw away.

Another reason smokers are switching to e-cigarettes is because they are environmentally friendly due to their lack of packaging and lack of cigarette butt waste.

“Cigarette butts are one of the highest sources of pollution in the world when you're looking at the numbers,” says Ellis. “Trillions of them thrown out every year for birds, fish, and other animals to eat. Just a few of them are enough to send a toddler to the emergency room, so you can imagine what they do to small animals.”

The last reason smokers are switching to electronic cigarettes is due to them reportedly being less offensive to friends and family that are non-smokers. Many non-smokers are offended by traditional cigarettes for health reasons.

“Most of the time, you don't even know someone's using an e-cigarette in public unless they just make it a point to show it to someone,” says Ellis. “I've shown them to people in restaurants and within 2 or 3 minutes, have a crowd of anywhere from 5 to 15 people crowd around me wanting to see it. Even the people who hate smoking don't seem to have a problem with it. They think it's a great idea.”

(By William Ellis, Official Wire, 12/06/2010)