While the advent of the electronic cigarette is a fairly new phenomenon (the style of devices popular with users today have only been around since about 2013) a massive urban 'vape culture' has blossomed in cities across the globe.

Vapers, as users of the devices will self-identify, come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Old and young, rural and urban, most were driven initially by a simple yet elusive goal – to quit using tobacco products, usually cigarettes but surprisingly often smokeless tobacco. But the group that's seemed to embrace vaping as a lifestyle tends to comprise primarily twenty-something city dwellers.

It's this dedicated cadre that will spend hours maintaining their 'mods' (a holdover term for vaping devices from early days when users modified or built their units from scratch) and 'attys' (heating elements that atomize liquid into vapor). They'll spend hours agonizing over the perfect coil build, wrapping and re-wrapping tiny strands of metal wire to create twisted contraptions through which a wick is threaded to draw 'juice' to the heating element. Bearing names like Clapton (one wire strung around another like a guitar string) or staggered framed staple, many of these are on their own minor works of art when lit aglow.

Whether former smokers or simply hobbyists seeking to avoid tobacco, vapers almost unanimously agree that the wide variety of liquid flavors available is one of the strongest draws. From simple fruits to complex blends mimicking chef-crafted pastries and desserts, consumers gather at vape lounges to sample the latest offerings from hundreds of craft biologists that have sprung up to meet relentless consumer demand.

Setting flavor aside, another of vapers' most satisfying achievements is their clouds. It's difficult to explain the satisfaction one feels upon exhaling a thick, fluffy cloud of vapor, but it's a hook that keeps those in the vape scene perpetually chasing the almighty 'more.' Cloud chasers, in vape parlance, gather at meets to share their latest coil-building techniques and compete with one another to blow the biggest, quickly fogging up a room. Fortunately, vapor lingers in the air for only a matter of seconds instead of the 20 minutes or more that it can take for smoke to dissipate, so they'll soon have the chance to start anew.

One of the most controversial aspect of vaping is the as-yet unknown health consequence of the hobby. At least, that is, according to the US government.

Nearly two years ago, the lead health agency in Britain declared vaping to be '95 percent safer' than smoking. Numerous other federal studies abroad, along with a host of university-led research stateside, have shown conclusively that there is no evidence that vaping leads users to eventually begin using tobacco products and that the use of e-cigarettes is at least as effective as other methods in helping current user quit.

The Brits, along with other governments worldwide, are moving toward encouraging the use of vapor products as an alternative to cigarettes and other tobacco. But the scenario Americans face is much different – the surgeon general's office recently released a report that cast aside most recent research in favor of supporting a theory that acceptance of vaping opens the door for a 're-normalization' of smoking, therefore concluding that any available methods for suppressing the growing vape scene should be pursued.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration published regulations that would impose what vapors describe as onerous restrictions on the sale and manufacture of liquids and hardware introduced to market after 2009 (virtually everything on the market today), and a plethora of local and state regulations enacting vaping bans or putting the squeeze on local shops have caused many to fear for the future of the industry.

Still, the vapers soldier on, as evidenced by the plumes of fast-dissipating vapor that continue to dot the landscape across the city.