to feel positively evangelical about electronic cigarettes?

[KatyTheCleaningLady]

I was reading the AIBU thread about the husband vaping in the house with a newborn. I was struck by the passionate testimonials from former smokers, saying they couldn't have done it without e-cigs. I had tried a puff one of those things that look like a cigarette and was underwhelmed. But I didn't know about the more advanced set ups where you can fill them up with your flavour of choice. Anyway, I was intrigued. I smoked a pack a day for 25 years, and never quit more than a few months at a time, no matter which methods I tried.

nb84 encouraged me to give it a try and told me what to buy to get started.

I ordered a starter kit that night. It arrived the next day and I fell in love. I have three of them, now (one always charging, one near to hand, and one in my purse ready to go) and eight different flavours of the juice.

I don't want to smoke cigarettes any more. I like this better. It tastes really good. It feels good. And it doesn't stink. My hands, clothing, and breath don't reek anymore. I don't have to keep going outside. I don't have to feel like a smelly pariah. My husband can't smell it even when I'm sitting right next to him.

And I don't have to try and not think about the fact that my mother died of cancer after spending her last decade debilitated by emphysema.

And instead of paying £8 a day for fags, I can buy a week's worth of juice for £10. The hardware was less than £20 to get started and will require only £10 a month going forward. Of course, I can spend more. Many people geek out on it as a hobby because the gadgets are fun and constantly improving.

I'm not worried about putting on weight like people usually do when giving up the cancer sticks. In fact, I snack less. I no longer crave sweets. I would normally nibble all day, especially Haribo sweets. I don't want them anymore because I am tasting a bunch of sweet flavours all day long.

I'm so happy that I want to tell everyone - every smoker and everyone who loves a smoker - about it.

forum a never-smoker here, possibly alone on this thread? :) I think now is the time for some good professional peer reviewed research into any health issues of vaping, so people can make an informed decision.

BUT for non smokers this is potentially exciting, because what we see now is a huge effort made to help people give up smoking using all kinds of things, which has a low success rate.

I think llazy is spot on when she says some people resent vaping cos it is too easy and pleasant a way to give up fags, like having an epidural instead of screaming your way through childbirth. Me, I don't care. I just want fags to disappear off the face of the earth.

Olga - I did not say that Nicotine causes CVD, I did say that the CV side effects are well documented and could be a problem for patients with CVD - which many have as a result of many years of smoking.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that instead of nipping out for a cigarette every hour or so that consumers are using eCigs much more frequently and also more frequently in front of their children.

This thread might save someone's life. Evangelise away. I do agree about the builder though, he is letting the side down

Stay

I find your attitude incomprehensible, to be honest.

While it may well be true that people use them more frequently and so on these objections pale into insignificance when compared to the almost immeasurable harm that real cigarettes cause.

Being addicted to anything may not be particularly good, but a nicotine addiction is not actually that bad - it's true that it is similar to caffeine in it's effects. Do you think that should be banned?

People have got to try and get their heads around the fact that it's the smoke that makes smoking so harmful - and vaping gets rid of that. Surely you can see that that's good?

If every smoker on earth started vaping, the death rate would plummet. And I personally think a parent vaping is better for a child than a dead or dying parent who could not stop smoking.

Some people really, really can't just stop as you seem to think they should. A healthier alternative is to be applauded....not dismissed by people who don't really know what they are talking about.

I'd like to ask stay two things:

(A) have you ever smoked?
(B) have you ever worked in the field of smoking cessation?

I can see that vaping may seem ungrateful to all those dedicated people who have tried so hard over the years to get people to quit using other means.

I would agree that vaping needs urgent research so we don't create a new health problem. Though the technique is ancient- Hubble bubble pipes have been in use for centuries in the middle east, and its a great pity that wasn't what caught on, rather than the burning variant.

But the potential is awesome.

The problem Tabitha is that evidence of safety has yet to be established and as such should not yet be endorsed a ground breaking alternative after carrying out a bit of internet research.

It may turn out to be as wonderful as you all report, but it still does not address the underlying addiction. The increased and widespread visual use in public and in the home is normalising "safe" nicotine use to our children and is something that I do not like.

I've seen first hand the devastating effect of long term smoking far too recently and will be hiding this thread for my own sanity.

As I mentioned up thread my e-cig arrived yesterday and despite my initial scepticism, I haven't smoked since then. I'm amazed, I really am. I've been smoking for 22 years and every other attempt I've made to quit has failed.

I honestly don't quite trust how easy this is!

I've seen first hand the devastating effect of long term smoking far too recently

So no matter how many times it's pointed out, you absolutely cannot grasp that the effects of long term smoking are caused by smoke not nicotine?

A pity stay didn't feel able to answer my questions. We all bring some bias to this discussion, most of us have said openly what our position is. Makes it easier for others to assess the points we make.

stillenacht I think you will upgrade to an ego-based kit before too long, too. You have time to read about it. Definitely look for a bricks and mortar vape shop near you.

Testing would be lovely.

I just don't have time to wait years while the pharmaceutical and tobacco companies give reach-arounds to the government.

E cigarettes were invented by a Chinese doctor whose mother died of lung cancer. The tobacco companies have jumped on the band wagon, but the improvements to the system have been down to user-led innovations. A big part of the appeal of vaping is the freedom from the tobacco companies and ghoulish tax revenue seekers.

Completely ignored upthread so I'll say it again: I can't help but compare vaping vs smoking with taking methadone vs injecting heroin.

i.e. nice new method is loads safer than the Very Bad Alternative, but really, would you want to be hooked on any of them?

My thought when I see someone using an e-cig is, what a shame they haven't the strength to actually quit. And the tacky-looking e-cig shops that are popping up everywhere in empty retail units? Ugh.

Methadone isn't safe without strict supervision.

And we're still using nicotine. We're just not breathing in the thousands of other vile things present in smoke.

And who gives a shit if it's "tacky?"

Melongena I find it disappointing that I don't have the strength to quit. But I try not to consider it a reflection on my character...I have been incredibly strong in other situations in life; this particular one has proven too difficult, time and time again.

Yes, I'd rather not be hooked on anything, but I am hooked on nicotine, and Diet Coke, and exercise and Daim bars. I am someone who strongly believes in the existence of the addictive personality!

If I could exchange smoking cigarettes for vaping, at the very least, I would no longer stink, nor create waste with cigarette butts. If those were the only benefits (which I don't think they are), I'd still want to switch (even if vaping were AS dangerous as smoking, which I don't believe it can be).

People seem to think that the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence.

I'm an ex-smoker, I know how hard it is to quit. I don't think that someone who switched from smoke to e-cigs and has been puffing them for 3 years can claim they have quit.

I don't like that they introduce sucking on a stick back to places where it has gone from. I don't like that the idea that there's no "second hand vape", means that it's ok to use them everywhere, which normalises sucking on a stick everywhere again.

I love mine.

I have a tornado tank from Totally Wicked and vape Black Cat from Vapeescape.

Don't bother with the ones that look like ciggies. You really want one that you can fill yourself.

Completely ignored upthread so I'll say it again: I can't help but compare vaping vs smoking with taking methadone vs injecting heroin

You are not comparing like with like. Heroin is a deadly addiction - nicotine is not.

Again, it's the smoke that is, and always has been, harmful, not the nicotine. Until people can grasp this very important point, they are just not going to get it at all.

I don't think that someone who switched from smoke to e-cigs and has been puffing them for 3 years can claim they have quit

Well, they have. They have quit smoking. The "sucking on a stick" thing is not the deadly part of smoking, neither is the nicotine. It's the smoke. With vaping that's gone - so they are no longer smokers.

Katy I didn't say safe, I said safer.

Methadone is safer than injecting heroin. Methadone access is regulated and supervised and carries no injecting risks. Using methadone is a very good way of managing an opiate addiction without actually having to go through withdrawal. Some methadone users go on to quit, others stay on methadone for the rest of their lives. If a methadone user can't get access to methadone they're at real risk of going back to injecting.

Lots of similarities to vaping vs smoking as a way to manage a nicotine addiction.
Not great that they're being sold to anyone, by anyone with a bit of cash to set up a tacky e-cig shop, and made by anyone, with no quality control or safety testing.

And I care if it's tacky, my kids have to walk past our local one (which used to be the greengrocer's, cheers Tesco!) and if they were older they might pop in to see what the shiny things are and maybe give it a go, I mean, it's loads safer than smoking, innit?

I went from 40 a day to not even missing it with my e-cig.

Dh went from 40-50 a day to one a day. He still has that one in the morning that he won't quit but one a day compared to 40-50? I will take it!

I have been quit for over a year and a half now. Every time I quit in the past I missed smoking daily, now you couldn't pay me to go back.

I don't care that I still use nicotine. Why would I? nicotine has some benefits and no worse than caffeine.

The British Medical Association does not seem to agree with the idea that e-cigs don't contain harmful stuff.

Oh and FFS I do not smoke!! I vape. I am a non smoker!

I too gave up after using one of these. Hadn't had a fag since January 2012. Haven't needed the ecig since March 2012. Feels great after 35 odd years of being a smoker.

Tabitha heroin isn't necessarily a deadly addiction, some people manage to carry on an opioid addiction without harm for their entire lives, with good dosage control and careful injecting technique.
Most heroin addicts can't control those things so oral methadone in controlled doses is a better alternative.

Yeah, so you've found a better way of getting a nicotine hit, great. Even better once it's regulated and quality controlled.
Vapers are still addicted though, like a methadone patient who would go back to injecting if there's no methadone available, they'd go back to smoking in the blink of an eye. Still addicted, see?

Widow

The BMA also say:

'Where a patient is unable or unwilling to use or continue to use an approved and tested nicotine replacement therapy, health professionals may advise patients that while e-cigarettes are unregulated and their safety cannot be assured, they are likely to be a lower risk option than continuing to smoke.'

That's good enough for me. Not 'no risk', but 'lower risk'. I am not taking up vaping with the intention of doing it for evermore. I am trying it as part of the process of stopping using nicotine completely.

Well done Dawn! It's a great feeling, isn't it? I'm so glad it worked for you, especially after all those years, kudos to you!