ORONO, Maine — The popularity of vaping — inhaling flavored and often nicotine-laced vapor using electronic cigarettes — appears to be growing in Maine, with a vaping shop and lounge opening recently in downtown Orono and another one planned for Mars Hill.
Everything Vapes opened on Oct. 24 at the corner of Main and Mill streets, and store manager Jaimee Batchelder said the owners are planning another store.
“We’re actually a chain store,” Batchelder said recently in the shop’s small lounge between puffs of thick white vapor. “We have two stores in Delaware and one in Pennsylvania. Hopefully, by the end of next week, we’ll have one open in Mars Hill for Aroostook County customers.”
Everything Vapes carries a variety of e-cigarettes and e-liquids to fill them that are made in house using just four ingredients. The electronic devices heat the e-liquid, which is made of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavoring and, most of the time, nicotine, into a vapor that is inhaled.
“It’s mostly all propylene glycol,” Batchelder said.
The Food and Drug Administration lists propylene glycol as “generally recognized as safe,” which means that it is acceptable for use in flavorings, drugs and cosmetics and as a direct food additive, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, the base for all the e-liquid flavors, are used in many common products. Vegetable glycerin, also known as glycerol, is a naturally occurring chemical used in some medicines, according to the health website WebMD.
Some communities, including Portland, have banned vaping in public places where smoking is already prohibited.
“Vaping has come so far over the years. We now know what is in it and what comes out,” Batchelder said. “People worry about second-hand vape, but it’s not smoke. It’s vegetable glycerin. Nothing comes out except water vapor.”
Despite what Batchelder says, with e-cigarettes, now sometimes called vape pens, only hitting the American market around 2006, health experts say more study is needed. Most agree vaping is better than smoking cigarettes, which are filled with numerous harmful chemicals and have been studied for decade.
The vaping store manager said that many users start out as smokers trying to give up the habit. Typical pre-packaged e-cigarettes sold at convenience stores cost around $10 apiece, and middle- and high-cost e-cigarettes range from $25 to $400. Not knowing the ingredients in the pre-packaged “big tobacco” e-cigs is one reason why vaping supply stores, where customers can choose from a selection of liquids to refill their vape pens, are becoming more popular, Batchelder said.
“We have set ups for everybody, everything for the person who quit smoking to the hobbyist who wants the flavor,” she said.
The Orono shop cuts down drive time for vapers in the area who had to travel to at least Bangor before for supplies.
A display with at least 20 different flavors for taste testing, some without nicotine, sits on the shop’s counter.