Every year May 31st is celebrated as “World No Tobacco Day” by WHO (World Health Organisation) and World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) to raise awareness of the ill effects of smoking, use of nicotine and tobacco.
If quitting smoking seems hard right now, it is exactly what you should start doing.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Smoke Effect!
Addiction to smoking is the psychological equivalent of enslavement to nicotine. After a monumental assault on lungs, it takes years to amend the habits and attitudes that led to it. Nicotine drug inside the cigarette is highly addictive which makes it difficult, well… exceedingly difficult for any smoker to quit smoking. It is a mental and physical process for which one needs to make specific choices and change in lifestyle.
We are bombarded with articles which help us with methods to quit smoking, tips to stop smoking, steps to stop smoking, dangers of smoking and so on. Also there is an array of information on alternative therapies like the nicotine gums, patches, e cigarettes, vaping and therapies. However, smoking persists to be a problem plaguing the society against its quest for a healthier lifestyle. The startup ecosystem has shown great interest in this problem and is continuously thriving to create an ingenious solution to this issue.
How do startups help to give up smoking?
Many startups are transforming this addiction by giving smokers a reliable way to quit smoking. One of them is electronic cigarette or e-cigarette, which is devised to create a similar feeling like smoking tobacco. Vaping is another market which piques the startup enthusiasts to make products which are available online at affordable prices. Many startups have combined the therapy with a product and an app based technology to track the success of the user in quitting.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day, let’s take a look at ways how startups are giving better alternatives to smokers.
Vaping:
Vaping is a healthier new alternative to smoking cigarettes and is strictly no tobacco.
Many researches acknowledged that vaping is entirely safe and is better than smoking due to no tar and fewer carcinogenic particles.
Still there is a lot of education required in this field to make smokers aware of the benefits of quitting smoking and to choose the lesser evil. Startups who believe the need for an effective alternative to quit smoking have recently started to tap this industry. They make good quality yet affordable vaping equipment, juices, batteries, accessories, and customized devices to sell online. Some startups even use a subscription model for their products to ensure smokers do not fall back to nicotine cigarettes.
Organic Smokes
There are many startups who make organic cigarettes. Organic cigarettes contain no tobacco, no nicotine, hence there is no side effects of people getting addicted. A startup named Organic Smokes makes ayurvedic cigarettes made of pure herbs, organic basil, camellia, sinensis blended proportionately without nicotine. They roll the cigarettes with natural paper and use biodegradable tar thus proclaiming it to be 100% organic.
Nictoine Replacement Therapy
This therapy works by giving you nicotine but without the tobacco. There are several types such as nicotine gum, patches, inhalers, sprays etc. Many smokers find solace in using these products as it is easy to procure and mimic the effects of nicotine and help to wane away the smoking habit. Though there are many big players in this industry, there is scope for startups to introduce better tasting and effective NRTs by combining knowledge from food industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry. Many US startups are focusing on NRTs to help people quit the smoking habit.
Apps
With technology being the centre of focus for any startup, a lot of them have started focusing on apps which help smokers to quit smoking by tracking their progress through a variety of methods.
Rather than raising anti tobacco slogans the startup industry is working towards a no tobacco day/ world by providing safer and effective alternatives.
Finally, a noble initiative with the right blend for a startup and time to kick the butt(cigarette).