Electronic Cigarettes

Electronic Cigarettes, or E-Cigarettes, are battery power devices that heat a liquid solution into vapor. Wow. I am at a complete loss for words to explain this invention. This means that you can smoke without the smoke. The liquid solution could include nicotine or not, but there is no tobacco. There is no need for a lighter and you do not need to ash or dispose of anything while smoking an e-cigarette.

This has sparked a fury of discussions on whether or not this device is safe, liked or disliked, legal, or even if it is considered "cool". Since it does not produce smoke should it be allowed in places where you cannot smoke legally? Can you use it on an airplane? Can you use it in a restaurant? It certainly isn't a fire hazard. There are questions on whether there should be an age to purchase although most articles I have read fit into the over 18 category. Legally, is it the same as smoking if you use it without nicotine? Many electronic cigarettes look close to real cigarettes and the vapor it produces does give the appearance of smoke. I am thinking that you will definitely draw some attention if it is illegal to smoke in a particular location. In fact, it has been used as a replacement for smoke producing cigarettes in the theatre.

So is it actually healthy? It doesn't contain tobacco, smoke, or any of the thousands of chemicals that regular cigarettes contain, but it still contains nicotine. Nicotine is addictive and not particularly good for your body. But these e-cigarette producers are also selling liquid solutions that do not contain nicotine. So does that mean that I would be smoking odorless, colorless, water vapor? Is there any point to that? I suppose for some, it is actually the act of smoking that is enjoyable and not the drug. The FDA doesn't have much to say about it yet but they seem to prefer to try and ban everything until they have tested it enough. Also there are comments and criticisms that say that the government wouldn't want to let it be widely sold unless they could tax it in some way. New Jersey has gone as far as banning it completely wherever normal smoking laws are enforced and many airlines have not supported the use of them on flights.

But can we even call it smoking? It seems more like vaporizing to me. It is vaporizing. Take a flavored liquid, add some nicotine or don't, and filter it to odorless nothing. Sounds way better than smoking to me. The main reason why I never really cared when the smoking laws went into effect in restaurants and bars was because I didn't care for the odor. Without the odor, it is already 100 times better. The rest, to me, seems like propaganda and very wise sales people. E-Cigarette companies have said you can smoke it anywhere or that it can be used to quit smoking (tobacco cigarettes) or that it is cheaper and healthier. I definitely think it is an interesting product none the less but I don't know if I believe all that. I wouldn't recommend buying it because they say it is more acceptable when there are still a lot of social and legal discussions going on. This might fall into the category of "try it once just for kicks" for me.

Post a comment, email, facebook, twitter me if you have any opinions or related content to point me to because this seems like it warrants a discussion. I have only just chipped the iceberg with this one.

If you have no idea what I am talking about Google it or at least read the below article to get started.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/08/20/e-cigarettes-the-good-the-bad-the-smoky/