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So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

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    So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

    Works like a charm. I haven't had any actual tobacco since Monday, and I don't feel any need to chew my own limbs off.

    Pros:
    1. WAY cheaper.
    2. I don't feel like an animal crapped in my lungs. I forgot what not smoking feels like.
    3. I don't smell like a house fire.
    4. Blood pressure is nice and stable for the first time in forever.

    Cons - and here's where the rant part is:
    1. I have a sense of smell again, and the world smells like ASS. Seriously, when did everything start stinking so Goddamn bad? It's like I jammed my head in a dumpster or something. It's like standing over a settling pond down at the sanitary district.

    Still, it beats jamming tar down my lungs, along with the accellerants put in tobacco to make it burn evenly, as well as the trace amounts of arsenic, cyanide, and all the other crap that's in regular smokes. The glycol crap in the e-cigs MIGHT be harmful, but the real cigs ARE harmful, so I'm gonna stick with this.

    #2
    Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

    I picked one up 3 or 4 months ago and it's infinitely better than regular tobacco. Kinda sad that the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries are working so hard to keep people from seeing them as a valid option, as they're pretty much a 'have your cake and eat it too' situation, all the benefits of smoking with none of the major side effects.

    Just a tip, e-cigs seem to dehydrate people really quickly in a way that regular cigarettes don't, so don't be surprised if you start feeling the urge to drink a lot more water than usual.

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      #3
      Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

      Haha my boyfriend said the same thing about quitting smoking (for the brief time he managed to pull it off). All I can tell you is that there are some wonderful smells in the world too. I have a very sensitive sense of smell and although a lot of people need to wear deodorant more and pick up after their dogs (thanks, European city), there are also lots of things like flowers, wet grass, forest, ocean, and all that jazz out there. Sometimes I'll go for a walk with my boyfriend (who smokes again) and point out how wonderful the air smells, and he just can't smell it. You won't have to miss out on that stuff.

      Smells tend to change with the time of year. Summer and early autumn can really stink.

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        #4
        Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

        Originally posted by Aeran View Post
        Kinda sad that the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries are working so hard to keep people from seeing them as a valid option, as they're pretty much a 'have your cake and eat it too' situation, all the benefits of smoking with none of the major side effects.
        Here tobacco companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

        But...the idea that there are no side effects or health risks isn't accurate. There haven't been a ton, but the several studies that have been done have demonstrated that higher concentrations of inhaled propylene glycol* causes decreased lung function, and increases the chance of asthma, allergies, and respiratory problems in children---and that, yes, there is a second hand effect. IMO, if you are using an e-cigarette to quit smoking (and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence for this, though only one study which puts it as slightly better than the patch), go for it...whatever works to curb the addiction and make it easier to quit...but if you are using it to replace smoking, don't fool yourself that it is a healthy or even just healthier alternative...the jury is still out, but it looks unlikely.

        *propylene glycol is used in a number of inhaled medications, including asthma medications....but, there's a bit of a difference in amount inhaled between a couple of doses of inhaler and the e-cig equivelent of a pack a day habit.
        Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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          #5
          Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

          In my day job, I evaluate health hazards in the workplace...in the workplace, the 8 hour TWA for an employee exposed to propylene glycol is 10 mg/mg^3. Now I have no idea how much propylene glycol is in an ecig, but depending on how much you vape to replace smoking, it wouldn't surprise me if people get up there. To put it into perspective, someone cleaning up a propylene glycol spill is supposed to wear a respirator because prolonged inhalation exposure can cause CNS depression and other organ damage. Plus, in animal studies its teratogenic (it causes birth defects).
          Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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            #6
            Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

            I'm not sure about 'healthy,' I don't think there's a delivery method out there for psychoactive drugs that I'd call 'healthy,' but I don't doubt for a second that it's far, far healthier than traditional cigarettes.

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              #7
              Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

              I've never smoked myself, nor do I plan on doing so, but a lot of people around campus use E-Cigs and they seem to love them. I doubt they are perfectly healthy, but I'm sure they are better for you than a normal cigarette.

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                #8
                Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                Originally posted by Aeran View Post
                I'm not sure about 'healthy,' I don't think there's a delivery method out there for psychoactive drugs that I'd call 'healthy,' but I don't doubt for a second that it's far, far healthier than traditional cigarettes.
                Like I said, the jury is still WAY out on that...
                Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                sigpic

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                  #9
                  Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                  Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                  Here tobacco companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

                  But...the idea that there are no side effects or health risks isn't accurate.
                  My doctor and I had talked about it, and his opinion was that putting ANYTHING in your body other than air, food, and drink is going to have some sort of side effects...But that the side effects of e-cigs are miniscule when compared to real tobacco.

                  So it's a lessing of risk, not an elimination of risk.

                  - - - Updated - - -

                  Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                  Like I said, the jury is still WAY out on that...


                  I've seen the list of things that come out of a burning cig. I'm fairly comfortable with this.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                    Congrats, Luce! A hospital around here has just announced they will no longer hire smokers, and will make applicants undergo nicotine screening.
                    sigpic
                    Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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                      #11
                      Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                      Originally posted by Hawkfeathers View Post
                      Congrats, Luce! A hospital around here has just announced they will no longer hire smokers, and will make applicants undergo nicotine screening.
                      Which is kind of crap, if you ask me. Making a non-smoking campus is one thing, telling people what legal things they can and cannot do on their off hours is a very different matter, entirely.

                      Incidentally, an e-cig user would fail the nicotine test. So would someone that chews, or uses nicotine gum.

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                        #12
                        Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                        Like I said, the jury is still WAY out on that...
                        The jury is out, to an extent, on the various health claims that have been made and the specifics of how true they all but, but the reality is that there's a list of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that are given off from smoking cigarettes as long as my left arm. Even if every half way reasonable negative health claim ever made about e-cigs turns out to be true simultaneously, it wouldn't add up to being as toxic as regular cigarettes are.

                        Toxicity

                        Electronic cigarettes should theoretically have fewer toxic effects than traditional cigarettes.[9][10] Nevertheless, concrete evidence is insufficient as of 2013,[9][2] although tentative evidence suggests they are safer than real cigarettes, and possibly as safe as other nicotine replacement products.[6]
                        The electronic systems appear to generally deliver less nicotine than smoking.[9] The amount of nicotine delivered is believed to vary between different brands of electronic cigarettes.[2]
                        A preliminary analysis of e-cigarette cartridges by the FDA in 2009 identified that some contain tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), known cancer-causing agents.[11][12] The amounts of TSNAs present were on par with existing NRT products like nicotine gum and inhalers. The FDA's analysis also detected diethylene glycol, a poisonous and hygroscopic liquid, in a single cartridge manufactured by Smoking Everywhere and nicotine in some cartridges claimed to be nicotine-free.[11][12] Diethylene glycol has not been found in any cartridge tested since 2009. Further concerns were raised over inconsistent amounts of nicotine delivered when drawing on the device.[13] In some e-cigarettes, "Tobacco-specific impurities suspected of being harmful to humans – anabasine, myosmine[14] The UK National Health Service noted that the toxic chemicals found by the FDA were at levels one-thousandth that of cigarette smoke, and that while there is no certainty that these small traces are harmless, initial test results are reassuring.[15]


                        VG and PG are both perfectly safe for human consumption when swallowed, it's been suggested that it's possible that they could be harmful when vaporized at high temperatures, but no real evidence has been found. Nicotine itself isn't exactly healthy, but it's no worse than, say, caffeine. There have been trace quantities of contaminants found in the liquids, but not only is there no conclusive evidence that they have any real harmful effect in the quantities present, but that's an issue of regulation, not a problem with the delivery method itself.

                        There have been a lot of media articles out there which push these small issues with the intent of making e-cigs sound dangerous, but if you look deeper it tends to come down to either disbelief that a method of inhaling nicotine could be safe regardless of the science, trolling for page hits with sensationalism or pushback from the tobacco and/or pharmaceutical industries who stand to lose a substantial amount of income if the popularity of e-cigs grows.

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                          #13
                          Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                          Originally posted by Luce View Post
                          Cons - and here's where the rant part is:
                          1. I have a sense of smell again, and the world smells like ASS. Seriously, when did everything start stinking so Goddamn bad? It's like I jammed my head in a dumpster or something. It's like standing over a settling pond down at the sanitary district.
                          This made me laugh. lol.

                          Hopefully getting your tastebuds back will also make it onto the 'pros' list? Being able to smell more means being able to taste more... and enjoying food more.

                          Congrats on putting down the real cigarettes.

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                            #14
                            Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                            Originally posted by Aeran View Post
                            There have been a lot of media articles out there which push these small issues with the intent of making e-cigs sound dangerous, but if you look deeper it tends to come down to either disbelief that a method of inhaling nicotine could be safe regardless of the science, trolling for page hits with sensationalism or pushback from the tobacco and/or pharmaceutical industries who stand to lose a substantial amount of income if the popularity of e-cigs grows.
                            Actually, I was going straight from the recommendations of the AIHA, having just done a survey where it was used in a workplace and has nothing to do with the smoking vs vaping debate. I'm not criticizing anyone that is using them--the hubby switched to them from smoking not too long ago, and has found weaning himself off of them to be much easier than cigarettes. I just don't think anyone should fool themselves into thinking they are a safer alternative, because the idea of safer is sort of relative when you are talking toxicology--it has less to do with what is in something than how much, how often, and how long...and the marketing for them has led a lot of people (particularly teens) to think that they are harmless.
                            Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                            sigpic

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                              #15
                              Re: So, after 28 years of smoking, I just got one of those e-cig thingies...

                              Originally posted by Luce View Post
                              Which is kind of crap, if you ask me. Making a non-smoking campus is one thing, telling people what legal things they can and cannot do on their off hours is a very different matter, entirely.

                              Incidentally, an e-cig user would fail the nicotine test. So would someone that chews, or uses nicotine gum.
                              That's what I thought, at first. But it's kind of karma around here. Businesses that are privately owned can do that, and this hosp. is one of those. This area is VERY big on individual freedom for business owners, (drug stores don't sell birth control if they don't want to, there are no abortion facilities, etc., because they're all Bible-belty). But a lot of people smoke. Hence my karma remark.
                              However, I can buy any kind of gun, cash, no paper trail, while in the last state where I lived, there was an extensive process, and lots of restrictions. Legal activities are hampered all over the place, seems like.
                              sigpic
                              Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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