The experiences of a heavy smoker switching to e-cigs

by Charlie Thrun
(Fremont, Ohio, USA)

I'm 72 and an unrepentant smoker. I have no intention of quitting and have never considered trying. If I ever stop, I'm afraid my toes will curl into the ground and leaves grow out of my ears as I turn into a vegetable.

Have you heard of the fairly-new electronic cigarettes? Not that I'm trying to get you back in the habit.

Sold as nicotine delivery devices, they can be as cheap as $20 or as expensive as $150, according to where you get them -- and sometimes for exactly the same product. Having only been available in the US for a few years, there are no Federal regulations or taxes established yet. It's a free-for-all with many scams.

Now, the best part. The things use propylene glycol mixed with a nicotine solution which is vaporized by a heating element (up to maybe 200 degrees. Not hot enough to light paper), taken in as a fine mist with water vapor as a by-product. No second-hand smoke is involved.

Propylene glycol is a chemical used in industry and generally considered safe. I think it's used in potato chip bags to keep them fresh. At least no one has been known to suffer any ill effects. There is another formula of it that is used in anti-freeze, but not the one in e-cigs.
Detractors often bring up the latter point. ?My God! You're smoking anti-freeze.? Reputable dealers use the more expensive much safer type.

What is missing is the thousands of questionable elements and substances born by a burning tobacco cigarette. As a matter of fact, nicotine is found in other vegetation. Even tobacco can be taken out of the equation. Something like lettuce can provide the nicotine.

Experts have mixed opinions. For one thing, there have never been extensive tests. The FDA made one test with the worst possible choices (the scam artist producers) and banned them from being imported. Later, both a Federal judge and an Appeals Court reversed those finds. The consensus is that they can be up to 10,000 times safer than regular cigarettes.

Pharmaceutical and cigarette companies are lobbying strongly to ban them. Without regulation, there's no profit in entering the field. That will change when the government gets around to making laws. Like with other products, quality and consistency will improve, even as prices and taxes go up.

They have a popular reputation as being much more effective to those people who want to quit smoking. I hear a nicotine patch, for instance, has a 10 or 15 percent success rate, while e-cigs are up to 60 or 70 percent. But don't tell anyone I said that.

My own doctor told he was all for their use for patients like myself. That a growing number of his patients have switched. He even asks his smoking patients to try e-cigs. They're supposed to be thousands of times safer than regular cigs. Of course, there hasn't been time for long-term studies, so it's not certain.

A huge plus is that many, some say hundreds-of-thousands, have quit altogether -- both cigs and e-cigs -- by slowly lowering the nicotine content of their e-cigs. Such testimonials are found everywhere on the Internet, on both e-cig forums and in articles. It seems to work better than any smoking cessation device.

On one hand, politicians want that lobby money. On the other, some realize they might be dooming many smokers if they accepted it. I think the best thing to do would be to do exhaustive tests then take appropriate political action in regulation.

I'm not going to mention specific brands, but they come in either two or three parts.

The three-piece e-cigs includes:

A battery component in the shape of a cigarette-tube that can be charged in several way. One is with a wall-socket adapter.

At the other end of the e-cig there is a disposable mouthpiece. Typically, it comes with a fiber filler containing e-juice. The e-juice can be replenished at least a few times before the fiber breaks down.

In the middle, there is an "adapter" which contains a simple computer chip and a heating element. Many hot water heaters get up to about 180 degrees; this element goes up to about 200. Enough to become uncomfortable to your fingers if you grip it but not to burn flesh or even paper. In other words, no flame.

The adapter requires user maintenance, another strike against kids using it. They don't have the patience for constantly charging batteries, changing fillers and otherwise maintaining an e-cig.

The newer, two-piece e-cigs include:

The same as above except that the mouthpiece includes a cheaper throw-away heater and adapter. The battery is still separate and has to be recharged and screwed in.

Conclusion: I'm happy with my e-cig setup. The reason I started using them was to save money and it has served me well in that respect.

Out of a possibly $300 investment over three years, I still have most of the equipment in working order and at least half the juice I've purchased. It's been a good investment, considering how much I would have paid for regular cigs over that time-frame.

Although I'd like regulation in regard to quality control, it would no doubt bring on higher taxes as with regular cigarettes. I can also see that regulation would mean Big Tobacco getting involved, probably with restrictions in nicotine level. For myself, I love strong cigs with oodles and oodles of nicotine. Once you get past the initial investment, they're both safer and cheaper than regular cigs. I purposely didn't give brand names or URLs.

Charlie