system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: the tobacco industry is behind the push to outlaw vaping.

A few people have died from vaping recently and there are a large push to outlaw vaping. I think the tobacco industry is behind this for two reasons:

1. No one knew how popular vaping would be.  It is taking a lot of business away from traditional cigarette makers.

2. Cigarettes kill almost half million people per year and no one is suggesting they be outlawed.  Yet a few people die from vaping and suddenly there is a rush to protect health?

It seems obvious to me the industry losing customers to a new alternative is the obvious championship for outlawing the new product.
gpt
Here is a list of companies that own vape brands:

* British American Tobacco
* Stada Arzneimittel Aktienge-sellschaft
* Huabao International Holdings
* Japan Tobacco Int
* Imperial Brands plc
* Philip Morris Int. Inc.

It's also a list of major tobacco corporations. The most well-known e-cigarette brand is Juul, which held three-quarters of the U.S. e-cigarette market at the end of 2018. In December of that year, the cigarette company Altria — the parent company of Philip Morris USA — bought a 35 percent stake in Juul. Similarly, the brand Vuse came in second in the e-cigarette industry with 10 percent of the market share at the end of 2018. Vuse is owned by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc, which was acquired by British American Tobacco in 2017. These same companies specifically lobby congress against legislation that would regular e-cigarettes. For instance, Altria Group, Ballantyne Brands, Hay Island Holding, Reynolds American and Swedish Match AB, have all opposed legislation to regulate and tax e-cigarettes.

Given this reality, your theory seems a little far-fetched. Why would the tobacco companies, which own or have huge investments in the vaping industry, sabotage their own profits by seeking government regulation of their own products? Tobacco companies love vaping. They already have the internal structure needed to manage, produce, scale, and market this kind of product. Even better, vapes are not regulated or taxed anywhere near as much as cigarettes are. The profit margins and ease of business are way better in this industry than in tobacco. They have absolutely no reason to do what you are suggesting they are doing. They aren't losing any customers to a new product. Their already existing customers are simply buying one of their other products.