e-cigarettes, know anything about them?

[socks]

Congrats BikerBabe. That's great news and insight.

I remember the first batch of "regular" liquid nicotine e-cig I tried, the full strength stuff. I got dizzy. At the time I had smoked ultra light generic brands for years, so that direct hit of strong nicotine was too much, almost made me sick. That's educational in and of itself, right there.

It's very possible to use e-cig's to roll off the nicotine strength to 0. The liquid blend of 50/50 pg and vg with a flavoring is all you "vape" then, there's no nicotine at all. What they label "6 mg" is the x-light level for most blends. By the time you hit that you're not getting a lot of nicotine and of course, none of the chemicals that go into tobacco processing. A list - interesting reading.

The e-cig industry is wise to move forward carefully but firmly. There's no reason that an alternative delivery system for nicotine that uses the same method as cigarettes to deliver it (inhalation) should be viewed differently than cigarettes.

There's always the side effect too that with an e-cig you'll never set your bed on fire or accidentally burn a hole in your favorite shirt, sure. But it CAN be a method to quit smoking cigarettes, if that's your goal and every success story supports that. It can also be a method to quit inhaling nicotine completely, if that's your goal.

After that whatever risk the e-cig "vaping" products contain are unrelated to the traditional and known risks of smoking tobacco. All the anecdotal data supports that the e-cig used for inhaling flavored vapor with or without the nicotine or chemicals provides a method for the pathological behaviors that a cigarette user has after quitting nicotine. Basically the "habit" part - you can have something in your hand that you put in your mouth and inhale and receive the same sense of ingestion you got smoking. It's like a pacifier for adult infant behaviors. /> And that will, in fact, allow a person to "quit" if they want to.

I don't smoke, haven't for over a year. I stopped several years ago then started. Now, that's over and won't restart again. You get to a point after awhile where the smell and the smoke itself is just so stanky and horrible - well, I can't take it anymore, speaking for myself. I understand those who still do though. Now the distance between the effect and what I did to achieve it is like, far. Too far to get there from here anymore. />

Congrats!!! You won!!!! Savor the victory, you went a long way to achieve it.

[Kit Sober]

I recently lost a very precious Christian friend who smoked and thought he was immune to cancer cause he prayed and was tight with the Holy Spirit -- he had been healed of severe hip bone deformity and led a home fellowship (not twi related), and another dear friend and neighbor has just been put into hospice due to her cancer coming back with final vengeance. She's was still smoking until she went into hospice. It's a terrible way to die. And the people who love you are the ones who suffer so by the loss of their precious loved one, not to mention the bills left behind. Smoking is such a terrible waste of life. Just makes me cry.

[mckeanj]

In desperation, along with a lot of wheezing, 2.5 years ago, my son convinced me to try, Green Smoke, e-cigarettes. I opened the package, screwed in a filter to the, already charged battery, and took my first puff. It was exactly like smoking a very stong cigarette. Of course I had ordered the strongest, nicotine filled filters which are 2.7% nicotine, and I was used to smoking ultra light cigarettes. My biggest complaint, because of course, I had to nit pick them apart, (not having my beloved usual cigs, made me even more cranky, ) the e-cig felt awkward in my hand. That lasted about 3 days. I smoked 2.7% for 2 weeks then dropped to 1.7% nicotine filters, and yes, felt a tiny bit of a withdrawal, but nothing that could entice me to smoke a regular cigarette. OH YEA, I slept like a baby, and could breathe so much better, stopped all wheezing, coughing, ad hacking, along with no more snoring, in the first 24 hours of not smoking regular cigarettes.

I smoked the 1.7% for 2 weeks, then dropped to the next lower level of nicotine. Then, I dropped to 0% nicotine. It still tasted like a real cigarette, felt that way too, when inhaling. It was like a .... miracle. I was off cigarettes but still able to enjoy the tactile sensations of smoking a cigarette. So, it's been 2.5 years and still today, once in a blue moon, I sit, watch a movie, have a drink, and enjoy puffing on my e-cigarette. If I crave a cigarette, it's sitting right here, waiting for me to indulge, any ol' time, I please! I lost the urge or need to have the e-cigarette with me, at all times, way back when, but discovered, losing the nicotine was the easiest part of the trial. It was the oral sensation of inhaling, and holding the cigarette that was the most difficult part of the habit to break. After all this time, I still get an urge to have a cigarette, and that e-cig saves me, completely comforts, and relaxes me. It was, and IS, hugely successful, and an awesome way to finally get, and keep, those nasty-assed cigs out of my life.

[Brother Speed]

I quit smoking nearly 2 years ago using the cold turkey method; I haven't touched tobacco since. Yay me. (pats self on back) The motivation for this quit started with a heart attack and a three day stay in the hospital. Afterwards I went to a tobacco cessation class hosted by the same hospital that treated me for my heart attack. I was told in that class that there was not enuf information available to determine the safety of e-cigarettes so the hospital staff could not recommend their use. This safety statement causes me to laugh because nobody ever considered the non-safety of a cigarette when they started smoking. My two cents on the matter is this: cigarette tobacco contains nearly 7000 different chemical of which none are healthy, many cause cancer. e-cigarettes have only about 12 different chemicals. The e-cigarette fluid that is vaporized is propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is used in food stuffs and is considered safe by the USDA and has been used as such for decades. Propylene glycol is also used by all major automobile manufacturers as anti-freeze, to save our pets. Ethylene glycol is deadly to dogs when ingested. Based on that info, i believe e-cigs to be much safer than tobacco and at least as safe as any other Nicotine Replacement Therapy. I mean really, how safe is transdermal nicotine anyway?