I loathe smoking. I hate the way it looks; I hate the way it smells, I hate the butts and dirty ashtrays it leaves behind. I hate second-hand smoke and reeking clothes and irritated eyes. I hate the deaths from cancer and emphysema that ripped through my family and many others.
Yet this seems to answer many of my objections to smoking. There’s no smoke, since nothing burns; there’s just vapour. That’s got to reduce the carcinogenic effect dramatically. Is nicotine by itself carcinogenic? Would the remains of the nicotine-laden vapour, breathed out, pose as much of a problem to nearby people as second-hand smoke?
Presumably the device only emits vapour when the user is taking a ‘puff’ on it. If so, that eliminates both the second-hand smoke and the waste of nicotine that goes with it. The device would also fit nicely into the habits of existing smokers.
And, there’s no need for ashtrays or lighters or any of that crap. Reduced risk of fire deaths, better looking and smelling houses, less stuff to clean, less stuff to carry.
It still would look nasty in use, as cigarettes do, but that’s my own aesthetic judgement, and obviously other people differ. All in all, if it works as described in the linked Toronto Star article, I’d say this is a major improvement.
I actually just got mine a few days ago. I’ve charged it up, but haven’t used it yet. I’m almost a little scared–LOL! But I really don’t see how it could be worse than an actual cigarette.
If you take a “drag” you do get a puff of vapor which resembles smoke, but since it isn’t, presumably you could smoke these things in church if you had the notion.
I can’t wait for the first reported case of someone “smoking” one of these things and having someone thirty feet away complain about the smell.
I’m vaguely scared about those myself. The thing is, nicotine is quite dangerous at high doses. I mean, it’s already dangerous at low doses overtime, I know, but concentrated it’s a deadly poison.
Now, in my case, chain smoking is its own deterrent, as each smoke tastes nastier and nastier the shorter the interval between two cigarettes. So I instinctively balance the craving for sweet, sweet blue smoke with the craving not to taste foulness. But these electric ciggies don’t have much of a taste AFAIK, and of course they never burn out or end - you can puff on them all day long, as long as the battery holds on (and possibly the nicotine dispenser). And I wonder if that wouldn’t be even more dangerous than “old style” ciggies.
