The column mentions a “snootful of secondhand vapor” I’ve spent time with an e-cigarette smoker on two occasions, and while the secondhand vapor is much less offensive than smoke from an actual cigarette, it is by no means unoffensive. Something in the vapor, glycerin I suspect, caused severe drying in the noses of the other people who were there, and I got a headache, from that, and probably from residual nicotine in the vapor. Still, not as bad as smoke, but don’t think that it’s just water vapor.
You’re talking about this column (“Are electronic cigarettes noncarcinogenic?”), I presume?
Incidentally, wil9000 has delivered us 2 quality threads and 1 quality comment (total=3 posts) over 11 1/2 years, which has to be some kind of record. Kudos wil.
I’ve been smoking e-cigs now for a couple of months. I think most of the second hand offense is psychological…a lot of people just assume you are lighting up. You’d be hard pressed to actually smell the vapor in most cases, even in a confined space.
I have no idea of the health pro’s and con’s…I started a thread on this when a friend of mine gave me the Blu system (I’ve since progressed to a better system that’s cheaper and gives better vapor) and haven’t had even a twinge of wanting a ‘real’ cigarette. I have noticed that the amount of juice I’ve been getting has gone up, but I’ve actually dropped the nicotine levels to the lowest my local vapor store will put in, with no detriment or additional craving.
Personally, I’m pretty happy with this vice. It doesn’t stink up either me or wherever I’m smoking, and I haven’t noticed any downsides or drawbacks, especially when the alternative is smoking. I’m not even craving cigars at this point, and I had one today and I have to say that I enjoy the e-cig taste and vapor a lot more…and the wife doesn’t wrinkle her nose at me. 
A few months ago I had two friends spending the weekend with me. The first night they were here, we spent several hours watching TV in my (small) living room. I was smoking an e-cigeratte. It wasn’t until one of them actual saw me taking a puff of it that they even noticed it.
FTR, I wasn’t dragging on it like a regular cigarette, but over the course of a few hours, that was probably at least the 20th puff I had taken of it. But neither of them had seen or smelled it.
Personally, I don’t care for them. I never use mine as I found it made me smoke more. I love smoking. Actually, what I love is inhaling and exhaling smoke, so I thought this would be a good alternative, and for that, it was, but I what I found is that after puffing on that for a while my brain wanted (or needed) a real cigarette. I was also one of those people that would, when smoking a cigar (which is a once every two years or so even for me) would have to take a cigarette break once or twice during it, for the same reason.
I recently quit smoking and won’t touch the e-cig for the fear that it’ll make me want to run out and buy a pack of real ones.
XT, your guy doesn’t have nicotine free liquid? Have you asked if he can order some? Nicotine is added to the base + flavor, so somewhere up the production chain, someone has no nicotine added fluid to which your favorite flavors can be added.
I remember that thread; glad it’s working out for you. I’ve been using the Vision Vivi Nova for a while now, and I do actually like it a lot better than the Blu “looks like a cigarette” style I used to use. It was a surprisingly anxiety ridden switch, but I took to it pretty quickly once I finally took the leap.
Joey P, thank you for sharing that. Mostly these threads are full of stories about how great they are and how we’ve got no urge to use tobacco anymore. It’s good to hear another perspective, even though of course I wish they worked out for you. 
I have found a couple of flavors that do have an odor when exhaled. So I agree, it’s not quite “just water vapor” that’s in secondhand vape. Even those that have an odor though, are fleeting and faint.
Perhaps you and others who say they can’t smell it can’t smell it because you’re smokers? I can smell e-cig vapor from 10 feet away. It’s only fractionally as strong as tobacco, but sometimes it’s very strong when you sit right next to someone.
Then again, I can smell tobacco smoke from 3 cars away in a line in traffic. It’s not that offensive, and I don’t wilt in terror from it, but I do notice it.
Meh, it wasn’t that big of a deal either way. Right off the bat (months before quitting was even something I had given any thought to), I had a feeling they wouldn’t work because of their weight. Since they were so heavy and the weight was at the front end you can’t hold it like a cigarette. Right there, that made the entire experience different. Not bad, just different. I played with them for a few months, but when they sat on the table next to me, unused, for weeks on end, I knew they weren’t right for me. Maybe someday I’ll charge them back up, but not now, not while I still want a real one.
That’s exactly what my husband says. He’s begun to use the ecig a little bit, but I don’t honestly think he’s cut his tobacco use all that much. So again, thanks. Hearing it from you gives me a little more patience with him. It’s not just him being stubborn. 
In my expereince at least, and that of many others on vaping forums, the ecigs that actually look like cigarettes as described in the column and some comments here are usually not very good. They contribute to many people’s experience of trying it out and deciding it’s not for them.
The battery is too small, you can’t adjust the voltage, the juice they pre-load the cartridges with isn’t as good as juices that you can buy or mix yourself, and in the end they may turn as many people off from vaping as they help get into it. It seems that many who first try vaping with one of these types never get interested enough to try a “real” personal vaporizer and don’t know what they are missing. A ‘real’ vaporizer should have separate battery, tank, atomizer, heating element, wick, mouthpiece, e-juice, etc. There are many varieties of each of these many components, and which ones you choose to combine makes a huge difference in the overall experience.
Anyone really interested in using a PV to quit or reduce tobacco smoking should start out with something not too expensive, but still a level above these basic canned e-cigs that you buy pre-packaged with nicotine cartridges.
Until battery technology advances another few leaps, currently a good PV is at smallest about the size of a very large fountain pen when assembled, and the high end PV’s look something more like the size of a tennis ball can - but they can deliver a huge, satisfying, flavorful cloud of vapor with whatever flavor, density, temperature, nicotine strength, and ‘throat hit’ you prefer, based on the many variables you need to combine.
The battery voltage, vs. the resistance of the heating element, vs. the type of juice you load it with, vs. the type of wick or cartridge system you use, all combine to create entirely different vaping experiences. All these variables make starting out with anything better than the most basic canned e-cig very confusing, but if you really want to experience vaping it is worth it to do the research and some trial and error and find the hardware and juice that work best for you.
I found the videos by this guyto be helpful with the many considerations in choosing a good PV. Even with his help it took about 3 or 4 fairly expensive purchases and a lot of trial and error before I found the combination that was right for me. (That link goes to a Beginner’s Guide to vaping but if you click his username you can see reviews for hundreds of different vaping systems, discussions of voltage vs. resistance, etc.)
MODERATOR INTERVENETH: I don’t see what this has to do with the topic, and it’s a personal remark about a poster which has no place here. Frankly, I don’t know whether this is honest kudos or sarcasm, but it’s inappropriate in either place. Discuss the post, not the poster, please.
Remember: this is no place for good-natured humor.
I think that depends on the vaper. I have indeed come around to a “real” vaporizer, after nearly a year using the cig analogues because I was intimidated by all those variables and the high tech look of the thing. Turns out it’s really easy; easier to refill a tank than the Mistic cartomizers I was taking apart; easier to charge a battery once every two days instead of carrying spares with me all the time; easier to buy 30mL of liquid once a month instead of a pack of refills once a week… But I still haven’t gotten into variable voltage batteries - I just don’t see the point, as an out-of-the-box eGo-C paired with a 1.8ohm atomizer suits me perfectly. I have a roll of wick and wire to do a rebuild if I want, but I find it’s just easier to buy replacement atomizers. I’m saving so much on juice vs. cigarettes that I don’t mind the minimal expense ($3 once a month or so) of buying prebuilt attys.
** Joey P** and my husband are looking for a cigarette. They want the weight, feel, look, balance and tactile sensation of a cigarette. Might they enjoy a Volcano? Maybe, but it’s still not a cigarette.
I like mashed potatoes. I like instant mashed potatoes. But they’re two different dishes. And when I want real mashed potatoes, instant won’t cut it. Then they taste disgusting and the texture’s wrong and they make me crave real mashed potatoes even more - even though I enjoy instant mashed potatoes sometimes. I’m starting to understand that for some people (it doesn’t seem to be most people, but some people), ecigs are like instant mashed potatoes. They’re okay, even good sometimes, but sometimes they just make you want the real thing.
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
XT, your guy doesn’t have nicotine free liquid? Have you asked if he can order some? Nicotine is added to the base + flavor, so somewhere up the production chain, someone has no nicotine added fluid to which your favorite flavors can be added.
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Yeah, they can do the nicotine free. They mix up the juice right in the shop to order. I haven’t asked for no nicotine yet as I’m on only my second bottle which I asked for the minimum nicotine (I started off at 16mg, and this one is 6mg). I’ll definitely try zeron next time.
Yeah, I got rid of the Blu system pretty fast when some co-workers put me onto the e-Go T system. The juice you can get at local vapor stores is definitely superior to the prepackaged cartridges you could get for the Blu, with more taste and vapor that also lasts longer. I can generally fill the tank on my new e-cig and that will be good for a day or so.
[QUOTE=Una Persson]
Perhaps you and others who say they can’t smell it can’t smell it because you’re smokers? I can smell e-cig vapor from 10 feet away. It’s only fractionally as strong as tobacco, but sometimes it’s very strong when you sit right next to someone.
[/QUOTE]
Definitely I can’t smell it because I smoked for years. But from my experience most people don’t smell it either, even in a confined space…or they don’t know what the smell is unless they see you puffing away. I drove to Roswell a week or so ago with a bunch of people in a van (all non-smokers) and I was puffing away most of the time. At one point someone asked who was eating caramels, and why weren’t we sharing? 
I think one other person noticed the smell, but most were oblivious seemingly.
One person noticed me smoking and got angry and started talking about the smell and second hand smoke until I pointed out I had been smoking for over an hour and she didn’t notice anything until she saw me. Then I showed her the e-cig and told her what it was and what it did. She chilled out a bit after that, but like I said in my first post I think people are conditioned to react negatively to smokers today, so I think it’s at least partially psychological…an almost automatic response.
Cigarette and cigar (and pipe) tobacco are definitely strong odors, and they get into clothes, hair and if you are in a car into the fabric of the car. No doubt about that. I definitely notice these days when someone is a smoker. You can smell it on them from quite a ways away, and I can smell someone smoking from quite a distance these days as well.
You’re right.
E-cig sellers make a lot of claims about “just water vapor”.
But an independent study found that e-cigarettes emit acetic acid, acetone, isoprene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, averaging around 20% of what a cigarette puts into the air:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2012.00792.x/pdf
– Jon
Cecil, your bottom line is e-cigs beat smoking.
But that’s only true if they replace smoking, if the smoker quits. Are e-cigs in fact effective quit smoking aids?
There are no high quality studies that show this. None.
And there is a recent study that finds the opposite: e-cigarettes REDUCE quitting:
So there is little reason to believe that e-cigs deliver a health benefit, and growing reason to believe they actually hurt health by undermining quitting.
For some reason these facts are seldom mentioned by e-cigarette sellers.
Th most obvious problem I see with that study is that it’s based on self reported data of people who call a quit smoking help line. That’s a self selected group of people for whom quitting smoking is really *really *hard. The design completely excludes the vast majority of smokers who quietly quit on their own or with the help of their nurse or doctor.
You are right, though, that there aren’t any good (if we define “good” as “large”) studies showing that ecigs help people quit. There are a couple in the works - one undergoing peer review now - which should give us some answers before the year is out.
I believe this is the pilot study in Italy that this article refers to: Effect of an electronic nicotine delivery device (e-Cigarette) on smoking reduction and cessation: a prospective 6-month pilot study | BMC Public Health | Full Text
But the bottom line, for me, is that they helped ME quit cigarettes, and I feel a whole lot better physically and mentally. Study cohort of 1, 100% success. 
It definitely depends on the vaper’s preferences. Finding a substitute for tobacco addiction is a lot more complicated than a simple nicotine delivery system, or any e-cig would be as good as any other, and nicotine gum and patches would work a lot better than they do. There’s a lot of ritual and habit and personal preference involved. But having a PV that looks like a cigarette turned out to be much less important to me than having one that *performs *like a cigarette - i.e. the amount and density of the vapor, flavor, throat hit, etc. I can puff on a e-cig that looks exactly like a real cigarette all day long, until I am almost in a nicotine coma, and I still feel like having a real cigarette because I couldn’t ever get a big, satisfying puff out of it despite getting plenty of nicotine. But a stainless steel contraption the size of a flashlight with absolutely no resemblance to a cigarette can deliver the vape that satisfies. So, to each their own - whatever works to help someone avoid smoking is the one that’s right for them.
For those who try the little e-cig packages and find they don’t work for them, however, I maintain that it may be a matter of letting go of the idea that it needs to look like a real cigarette and trying a better performing PV that hits more like a real cigarette.
The eGo is a great battery. I still have one and use it pretty often (also with a 1.8 ohm coil in a Vivi Nova tank). I would consider that combo to be one of the best starting points currently for performance/price for any new vaper, and recommend skipping right over the e-cig analogues and starting with something like that.
Variable voltage is nice if you want to try different tank/atomizer systems with different levels of resistance, and different juices may vape better at different temperatures. If you wanted to try out a dual coil 2.8 ohm clearomizer for example, the eGo just wouldn’t be able to produce a decent puff of vapor at 3.3 volts. But if you took a puff using 5 volts you might decide the vape quality of a given e-liquid is way better that way than it is in the eGo at 1.8 ohm and 3.3 volts. If you’re happy with it as-is and have no desire to try out different resistance/voltage combinations to see if you can make it even better, and you don’t experiment with a lot of different e-liquids which may produce better results at different temperatures, then there is no reason to worry about variable voltage.
Has your husband tried the NJoy King disposable e-cig? I certainly don’t recommend using it full time as it will drain your wallet. That being said, it has a flavor very similar to cigarettes, quite a lot of nicotine in the full strength, is about the same weight and feel of a real cig and produces a great plume of smoke with really good throat hit. I think it’s great for a transition. It kept me off the real stuff long enough to switch to a PV and try other flavors. I don’t know if I could have switched without that transition…many smokers have no interest initially in smoking cotton candy or cherry cola but most come around.
The NJoy Kings are available at 7-Eleven and gas stations. They come in a little plastic flip-top package that resembles a lighter. It has almost all the elements one is looking for in the look and feel of a real cig. They are about 8 bucks a pop though, and do not last nearly as long as advertised. I could easily go through one in about 8 hours and I was not a heavy smoker.
Back when I was using cigarette analogues, we did try the NJoy rechargeables, which were kind of whistley and had a funny tendency to crackle and pop. But I’ll pick up a disposable and see if he likes it. Worth the $8 to try, anyhow. Thanks for the suggestion!