For those who smoke, and for those who want to quit but can't.

[Froste]

Hi, my name is Froste, I've smoked for 14.5 years.

In mid-december I was watching a crap documentary on the net, it wasn't good at all, but for a few brief seconds there was mention of a product called cigotine, which was supposed to be an electronic cigarette. I got curious and googled it, arrived at their website and watched the video of what it was, and how it worked. [BTW - for those who can't bother to read the entire text, but are immediately interested, do NOT purchase a cigotine, they're expensive and utter garbage]

I love smoking, and I love scifi, and this was something that combined both of them, without the harmful effects of tobacco. The video for cigotine got me extremely excited, but their product was expensive, a hundred dollars for the starter kit, and then 15 dollars for carts. But this was such an awesome concept that I figured there had to be something better... And there is!

There is a whole subculture around this, unlike the tobacco industry or the big pharmaceutical cartels, this isn't dominated by huge corporations, it's small vendors and private citizens who modify their own hardware, this is more like a grassroots movement than anything else. There is a huge modding community for those who are interested in electronics and/or cnc machining. It's been around for about 8 years, and gotten semi-popular in the last 3. And yet most people have never heard of them.

I kept googling and stumbled on videos and reviews and explanations and medical reports, and all sorts. The biggest forum is http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com -- it is gigantic. There are plenty of other forums too, www.vapersforum.com - www.internationalvapersclub.com and many others.

I read everything I could and researched heavily for a week, and then I placed an order with one of the vendors. They had heavy xmas discounts and I came away with a huge stash for a hundred bucks. I got my kit on December 29, and on December 29 I quit smoking. I switched over to vaping immediately, it was good enough to curb my cravings for an analog cigarette, and a week later when I got a batch of juice from another vendor, it became even more enjoyable. I much prefer vaping now, it was everything that I ever wanted from smoking, with none (or very very few) of the downsides.

For most people, they think a cigarette contains only nicotine, and that nicotine is the bad thing about them, what gives people cancer and shit. This is wrong. We don't know the exact amount of chemicals that a cigarette contains, but it is estimated that it's between 10 000, to 100 000, and the number of them that have been identified is ~5300.¹ Several of which are carcinogenic, like cadmium, benzene (the main component of gasoline that you fuel your car with), formaldehyde and other shit. There are over 50 carcinogenic chemicals in a cigarette, not to mention all that fucking tar which discolours everything around you. Most smokers already know all this, but it is something we accept because we have no alternative. Until now anyway.

It is not the nicotine in cigarettes that kills you, it's all these other substances. Nicotine itself is not much different from caffeine, in concentrated doses both are a poison, in small diluted doses they're stimulants and safe. That's it. Nicotine isn't the scary part, be scared of all the other things you get from burning tobacco. ²

An e-cig (or better called a PV -- personal vapourizer) has 3 parts, a rechargable battery, an atomizer that has a heating coil inside, and a mouthpiece that acts as a cartridge, a container for the liquid.

The liquid is made from a base of either propylene-glycol or vegetable glycerin (also called glycerol) or a mix of these two. Both of these have been classified as safe for decades and have been used for a very long time in various areas, for example in asthma inhalers, in hospital ventilation systems because they kill off viruses, in soap, in toothpaste, in practically every food item you consume. Both of these are hygroscopic which means they draw moisture (water vapour) out of the air to create fog.

There is also some flavouring, and some nicotine (you can choose which level of nic you want). [For my own part, smoking one pack a day of pretty strong cigarettes, I actually found 6mg is fine with me, which is an extremely low dose of nicotine, go figure.] You can also choose to have no nicotine at all in it. I suspect eventually I will go down to zero-nic, as it is the act of inhaling and exhaling that I enjoy, not the nicotine so much.

It works by wicking the liquid into a ceramic container in the atomizer where the coil sits, when you take a drag the air will pass through small holes at the bottom of the atomizer where the coil sits, and the moisture gets vapourized by the heating element, this creates a thick fog which emulates the effect you feel when you take a drag from an analog (a real) cigarette. Because there is no tobacco, and because you're not burning any organic materials (because you don't burn anything), there is no smoke, only a small cloud of fog which dissipates quickly and doesn't leave any lingering smells on you or others.

The money I threw down on buying my starting gear has already broken even with the money I would have spent on buying cigarettes.

If you are a smoker, or if you have a family member who smokes, or if you know someone who smokes, do yourself and them a favour and take a little bit of time to research this, go to the forums I linked to, google for it, educate yourself a little bit, because this is for real. Switch over to vaping and let your lungs heal up, you'll get rid of all the built-up tar, and let the cilia in your lungs grow back.

I haven't mentioned any vendors (other than cigotine, which was mentioned only as part of my journey of discovery along with a big fat DO NOT BUY THIS) or specific products, because I don't want to endorse anything in particular, just the concept and the knowledge of it. I want you to do your own research on this, because this is too important.

Already there are groups across the world who are trying to ban it, because it "looks like smoking" (I shit you not, that is the reason). While these groups and organizations claim humanitarian kindness, the truth is they want to give you two options, quit or die. If you choose to keep smoking because you enjoy it or because you can't quit, they would rather see you dead because it helps them in their campaigns, harm reduction doesn't give them any money.

Vaping is the third option. Don't quit, don't die, switch to vaping. This is harm reduction in its truest and purest form, and you should question the motives of any group or organization who is against this, and see them for what they really are.

If anyone has any questions I'll answer and help with what I can, questions about specific products or brands should be done through private messages



¹ http://hsph.harvard.edu/centers-inst...ticle.jphp.pdf (A report by Dr. Michael Siegel, an anti-smoking pro-vaping health researcher -- extremely informative, must read.)

² http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vapersp...michael-siegel (VPLive podcast -- this episode is interviewing aforementioned Michael Siegel and is also extremely informative, must listen.)