When, where, who !
The first smokeless non-tobacco cigarette was patented as early as 1963. The modern device, which uses battery-generated cartridges to heat a liquid (it can be infused with nicotine or not) and create a vapor, appeared around 2004 in China. The biggest fans of e-cigarettes are former smokers. Although the devices aren’t sold as quit-smoking aids, they are bought mostly by people who have smoked for 10-30 years and want to quit.
When, where, who !
The first smokeless non-tobacco cigarette was patented as early as 1963. The modern device, which uses battery-generated cartridges to heat a liquid (it can be infused with nicotine or not) and create a vapor, appeared around 2004 in China. The biggest fans of e-cigarettes are former smokers. Although the devices aren't sold as quit-smoking aids, they are bought mostly by people who have smoked for 10-30 years and want to quit.
According to Mike Floorwalker, vaping is absolutely safe. But then, Floorwalker works in the vaping industry, so he may, or may not, be right. "My title at my company is Juicemaster General. I know, it's an awesome titleI made it up. It means that I am responsible for every bottle of e-liquid that leaves one of our wholesale customers' shelves, and I make 95 percent of it myself by hand. There are only four ingredients, and we did not find a single one of them on the surface of the Moon".
"E-liquid begins with the main base, vegetable glycerin", says Floorwalker. We (and most other manufacturers) use certified organic VGthe glycerin doesn't carry flavor very well, but does produce a lot of vapor. The next ingredient is propylene glycolthis is usually cited by alarmists as being a "main ingredient in antifreeze." This is incorrect, as they're willfully confusing it with diethylene glycol, which has actually been found in mass market e-cig products. I absolutely do not add any of that to my liquid because I do not make antifreeze".
Nicotine is "a very serious addiction that's not given credit for how binding it is," said Pam Miller, a tobacco cessation specialist for Memorial Hospital. She said she's seeing a lot of people making the switch with the thought that vaping is smokeless and free of carbon monoxide but transitions from vaping to smoking nothing are rare. Using both products "sort of perpetuates the habit and addiction," she said. Some clients, for example, will go from smoking two packs a day to one but vape for the rest of the day, she said. Miller's hoping the FDA puts some final regulations on vaping products soon. "The bottom line is, I want people to be able to make an informed decision for themselves," Miller said.
The specter of some drugs being gateways to more dangerous drugs has preoccupied drug policy, and this is no different when it comes to tobacco products. E-cigarettes have been feared as possible gateways to cigarettes. If vaping has been acting largely as a gateway to cigarettes, one would expect to see more cigarette smoking with the rise in vaping. Yet this has not happened.and smoking has continued to decline. Cigarette smoking by young people is the most powerful cause of smoking by adults.
Health advocates were relatively slow to react to the onslaught of e-cigarettes, but recently, national, state, and city-level public health organizations have launched their own campaigns against e-cigarettes. On March 30, the CDC began its first anti-smoking campaign featuring e-cigarette users. Last week, the California Department of Public Health launched a anti-vaping campaign called Still Blowing Smoke. And in January, the San Francisco Department of Health launched #CurbIt, pointing out the dangers of e-cigs and their brazen plays to hook kids while warning residents that vaping is only allowed in the same places as smoking.
But, as we can see, there are numerous advocates of vaping, be it because they profit from it, because they enjoy it, or simply because they believe it's harmless. So it will take time and further medical studies to get to know the real facts.
