electronic cigarettes--how bad are they?

Factual Questions
21

I’ve been sporadically looking at e-cigs over the last year or so and waiting for a little loose cash to spend on a starter kit (yeah, yeah, I know, skip buying a few packs and I’ll afford it).

IMO, the smoking habit goes beyond the nicotine fix - in my case (and many other’s, I’m sure), the ritualistic aspects and physical feedback of holding the cig as well as the inhale/exhale actions are also important. In fact, when I find myself smoking too much or am in a no-smoking environment, I will hold an unlit cig in my hand or mouth and this often takes the edge off my craving enough for me to go up to an hour without needing to light up. (It also bugs the sh*t outta people around me - smokers keep asking if I want a light, and non-smokers get anxious in case I light up :p)

The Nicorette inhalor may deliver the nicotine but not the smoking “experience” - it’s like pulling air through a large straw and gives no physical feedback at any time, not even the comfort of holding it between your fingers; might as well wear a patch and chew on a pencil. I also think it looks pretty lame - probably developed with no input from actual smokers.

The e-cig, on the other hand (or so I’ve read), gives resistance when you pull in air, and the oh-so-important sensation of inhaling/exhaling a substance denser than air. Personally, this would make the whole experience so much better - keep the ritual, keep the nicotine, skip the tar and residue from burning tobacco.

Contrary to the rants of ex-smokers (damn, these people are worse than non-smokers) and sundry government officials who talk the line, the e-cig was not developed or marketed as a stop-smoking aid. It’s an alternative to tobacco so all the flack and slag about its safety is irrelevant to me since the e-cig is probably safer than burning chemically-enhanced commercial tobacco, treated paper and toxic glue.

If I end up quitting real cigs, cool - if not, at least I’ll be cutting down the number of cigs I smoke, cutting costs and cutting some stress out of a long, 10-hour day in an office on the 35th floor in -40 degree weather…

23

Actually, e-cigs have few health problems, certainly not like the myriad of health dangers connected with real cigs. And, I don’t think there will be any significant second-hand-smoke issues. It’s now been shown that even a whiff of smoke can hurt.

However- nicotine is a very hard drug to kick. I have had heroin addicts say it’s hard to kick than H, and Doc **Qadgop the Mercotan **has said the same.

Thus, if you are using e-cigs to stop smoking, I commend that step. But starting the nicotine addiction just because ithis drug delivery system is not all that deadly is a very bad idea.

24

I can confirm this. I bought an e-cigarette (mainly because our lovely governor here in Washington jacked the already-high cig taxes even higher and I decided I wasn’t giving her any more of my money), and then stopped smoking altogether a few months ago.

The e-cigarette, aside from the weight and the fact that it’s made of plastic instead of paper, felt almost exactly like smoking a real cigarette.

25

Semi-serious question from a former smoker: When I smoked a burny-type cigarette, I knew I was finished when it got too short to prevent igniting the filter. I understand from watching commercials for them on TV that each cartridge is the equivalent of a pack of cigs. But the e-cigarette never gets any shorter.

How does a smoker know when he’s smoked the equivalent of one cigarette? Is there a beeper that lets you know when a certain amount of time has passed, like with a Sonicare toothbrush?

Also, as a serious question, apparently the water vapor you’re inhaling is flavored. Is there any odor to the vapor you subsequently exhale?

26

And what happened to the FDA’s position that it was within its power to regulate these as drug-delivery systems?

27

I just puffed until I was “satisfied”.

None that I could detect, but having just stopped smoking real cigarettes my sense of smell was probably unreliable. I did puff on the thing around nonsmokers, though, and none of them mentioned any smell. I’d test it out for you now that a few months have gone by, but darned if I can find where the thing has gotten off to.

28

When the cartridge containing the nicotine is getting low, you simply get less and less output. When it’s no longer enough for you, you put in a new one. When the battery is low it blinks a different color and you need to recharge. Some folks have 2 batteries on hand so at least one is always fully charged.

There is no odor on the output. None. I specifically asked an adamant anti-smoke person to honestly tell me what they detected and she had to agree that there was nothing.

30

I just read a CNN article about how the big cigarette companies are trying to squash e-cig by imposing strict FDA restrictions. The company lobbyist’s will pay big bucks to congressmen to make sure. Big money dose not have a heart and cig companies don’t care about killing people with the coffin nails !

31

Moderator Action

oliviamia, you have resurrected numerous old threads, all related to the subject of smoking and/or e-cigs. While we do permit old threads to be resurrected here, we ask that you only do so when you have something new or significant to contribute to them. While this is obviously a subject that is near and dear to your heart and you do have some new information to add, there’s no reason to resurrect every single old thread on the subject that you can find.

Please do not resurrect any more old threads on this topic, and try to restrict your discussions on it to the fewest amount of threads necessary.

This thread is closed.