Anthony Fanelli may not be a doctor but he sincerely believes he is saving lives. As the owner and operator of Fishtown Vapes, one of the newer businesses to sprout up on Frankford Avenue, he sells electronic cigarettes and their accessories.

Also known as e-cigs, vaporizers, or simply vapes, electronic cigarettes are a new way to get nicotine in your system without burning tobacco and produce a vapor instead of smoke. According to Euromonitor, the fast growing but largely unregulated global e-cig market had an estimated worth of more than $2 billion in 2012.

Fanelli, who started vaping over 3 years ago after he “was tired of stinking and feeling like crap from cigarettes,” has bought into the idea that vaporizing is a healthier smoking alternative.

“Vaporizing cuts out all of the carcinogens, tar, tobacco burn and the other 4200 chemicals from regular cigarettes and gives you one chemical: nicotine,” Fanelli said. “Your lungs feel better, your taste buds come back, your smell comes back— not to mention it’s cheaper.”

Fanelli saw what a vaporizer could do first hand after his father, a smoker of 30 years, picked up a vape and dropped his cigarette habit right away.

“It helped my dad out tremendously and that was the turning point,” Fanelli said. “If it could help him out, then I knew I could do it. Realizing that it was kind of like saving a life I figured I should spread the word and get everyone to do it.”

After he initially “hustled vapes out of a backpack,” Fanelli opened his shop on 2223 Frankford Ave. four months ago. Aptly called Fishtown Vapes, the store offers electronic cigarette starter kits, e-juices, modifications and accessories.

“It’s been awesome in Fishtown, we’ve been growing day by day and happy to help out this community,” Fanelli said.

The basic starter kit, which is $19.99 and comes with a rechargeable battery and refillable atomizer, is a popular choice. In addition to that, Fishtown Vapes also sells high-end parts that can be customized and modified extensively to the point where they look like a lightsaber from a Star Wars movie.

“You can customize anything,” Fanelli said. “Everything from starter to mechanical mods, to variable voltage, colors, styles of tanks— we have anything you need to accessorize your e-cig.”

Fishtown Vapes also sells 35 different flavors of e-juice, the liquid that is filled inside of the vaporizers. The juice is made of a mixture of Propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavoring and nicotine, none of which are cancerous according to Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Each flavor is either made in-house or at Fanelli’s friend’s shop in New Jersey. After finishing each batch, juices are sent to a lab to be analyzed so customers know exactly what they are getting in their juice.

“We have flavors ranging from classic tobaccos into birthday cake,” Fanelli said. “The most popular lately has been a blueberry pomegranate flavor that we call ‘Smurf Blood.’”

Along with traditional aromas, interesting flavors include Skittles, Drunk Zebra (fruit striped gum), Atlantis (fruit roll up), and Karma (menthol)… Fanelli is even working on an Artic Splash flavor.

Fishtown Vapes is also in the process of building a juice bar that will allow for full customization and combination of flavors, something Fanelli thinks will allow his business to lure any cigarette smoker away from the ashtray and into the world of vaping.

“There are a wide variety of choices to go after the whole smoker community and get them in to try and show them a healthy alternative,” Fanelli said. “Drop those cigs, try a vape!”

Fanelli is excited about his business and the growth of the e-cig industry, even after a City Council committee recently approved bills that would add electronic cigarettes to Philadelphia’s smoke-free law and ban sales to minors. Fanelli has been attending meetings on the topic and says he’s confident that businesses will ultimately be allowed to decided who can and can’t vape in their establishment.

“You got employees going off six or seven times a day to smoke a cigarette on the clock, and if it’s a bigger corporation then they’re also paying for health insurance,” he said. “It’s also better for offices so they don’t smell like cigarettes.”

Worst comes to worst, if a ban does go through Fanelli believes that resulting intermingling between cigarette smokers and those who vaporize could provide some additional free advertising.

“Second hand smoke aside, this could cause e-cig users to interact with smokers more and get them to try the electronic cigarette,” Fanelli said.

Fishtown Vapes is located at 2223 Frankfrod Ave. Their hours are Mon.-Thurs. 10am-9pm, Fri.-Sat. 10am-11pm, Sun. 11am-8pm. You can ‘Like’ Fishtown Vapes on Facebook.