Electric cigarettes, a new, tobacco-free device designed to provide smokers with a nicotine fix without the hassle of second-hand smoke or carcinogens, are drawing attention in this country as a way to skirt current smoking laws. With the help of Chuck Williams, proprietor of the Pipe Den in the Harrisburg Mall, we provide this quick intro on the device and what it does. Williams has had an electric cigarette kiosk in the mall since April and says business has been steadily growing.
Q: What are electric cigarettes?
A: Also known as e-smokes, e-cigarettes and e-cigs, electric cigarettes are a new, tobacco-free alternative to traditional cigarettes, pipes and cigars. There are many types and brands but they all operate more or less the same way.
Q: How do they work?
A: Electric cigarettes are shaped like traditional cigarettes, but inside hold a small, rechargeable battery, an atomization chamber and replaceable cartridges that contain a mixture of water, propylene glycol (a compound commonly found in cosmetics, food and medicines) and nicotine. As the battery powers up the chamber, moisture goes through and creates a steam effect, much like a smoke machine. When you “puff” on the device, a red LED light on the tip will light up, in simulation of a real cigarette, but all you exhale is water vapor.
Q: Do I have to recharge it?
A: Yes. The product uses a lithium ion battery, similar to that found in a cell phone. Williams said it takes about two hours to charge in a normal outlet and can last all day if completely charged.
Q: What’s the advantage over normal cigarettes?
A: Proponents say they give a smoker a nicotine fix, but without tar, carcinogins and tobacco. The smoker exhales water vapor, so there’s no second-hand smoke — and only a little smell. Among those proponents are William T. Godschall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, who’s spent more than 20 years battling second-hand smoke.
Q: Are these things safe?
A: Few scientific studies have been carried out to determine the safety of electric cigarettes. A number of regulatory agencies have issued warnings regarding the health effects of these products. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t done any studies yet but has discouraged their use and expressed concerns that they lack the appropriate health warnings.
The American Cancer Society has criticized the lack of clinical trials to determine the product’s safety and joined with the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to ask the FDA to remove them from the market.
“I think they’re a bad idea,” said Dr. Rebecca Bascom, a professor of medicine at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. “I think they’re appealing in that a lot of people would like to quit smoking. The problem is there are no studies that have shown its effectiveness as a cessation aid. There are no safety studies either.”
“You’re taking something into the lungs. It’s well known that things act differently when they go into the body through different routes,” she said. “It’s naive to think they can deliver nicotine alone. We shouldn’t be asked to trust that this thing is going to be good.”
Health New Zealand, a private public policy group, conducted a study in May and deemed the product a “safe alternative to smoking.”
Q: Will it help me quit smoking?
A: Its adherents say yes. The fact that you can buy cartridges with smaller amounts of nicotine make it “a good way to wean yourself off the drug or quit smoking,” Williams said.

Q: How much nicotine is in them?
A: Most cartridges, like the kind Williams sells, come in packs of 16 mg, 11 mg, 6 mg, and 0 mg. Companies claim on average e-cigs contain less nicotine than actual cigarettes. Some people, however, Willams said, have been making their own filters, regulating the nicotine amounts by dropper.
Q: What do they cost?
A: Prices range from about $40 for a low-end model to $130 or $200 for the more high-end versions. The cartridges themselves cost $10 for a pack of five. (Each cartridge contains about 100-200 puffs or the equivalent of 20 cigarettes.) You can also buy disposable models for about $30. These only last a day or two.
Q: Where can you “smoke” these?
A:  Ostensibly just about anywhere. In bars, restaurants, the office. Williams said he’s been able to use them on airplane trips. Some businesses and restaurants do not allow people to smoke them on principle. It’s probably a good idea if you’re in a bar or public place to ask before “lighting up.”
Q: How popular are they?
A: Williams said he has sold about 300 since January. He divides users into four groups: People on a fixed income who don’t want to constantly shell out for smokes; those who want to smoke anywhere without being hassled; people who are trying to quit smoking; and people who want to smoke but can’t stand the smell.

I found the above article at PennLive.com

Get Blu Cigs Here!

No more smoking for Scott Riddle.

Now he vapes.

“Vaping” means he inhales the vapor from an electronic cigarette, a battery-powered device that typically looks like a cigarette, but delivers nicotine without the tobacco and smoke.

Electronic cigarettes, Riddle say, lets him enjoy the pleasures of smoking without its downsides.

But the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations says not so fast. The FDA warns that e-cigs are not safe, has seized some shipments, and is fighting in court to keep the e-cigarettes away from the public.

Following a nationwide crackdown on smoking in public, the dispute over e-cigarettes raises new questions about personal freedom, public health, addictive drugs and government regulation. It also begs the question: could this be the future of smoking?

The fix?

An electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette, is a small cylindrical device that looks like a cigarette or a pen. When users inhale from it, a heating element vaporizes the liquid in the mouthpiece cartridge, which contains nicotine and propylene glycol – a common chemical approved for use in foods, cosmetics, and smoke machines.

Users exhale a vapor that looks like smoke but without the cancer-causing tar and carbon monoxide.

E-cigarettes can have varying levels of nicotine, to match regular, light and ultralight cigarettes.

Riddle, a public safety dispatcher who lives in Schaumburg, was a pack-a-day smoker for 12 years before he tried an e-cigarette this June.

Riddle had tried a nicotine patch, and nicotine gum, which he called “disgusting,” but nothing simulated the habit of smoking like an e-cigarette.

The day he started using e-cigarettes was the last day he smoked an “analog” cigarette, as old-fashioned smokes are called.

“It replaces my need for a cigarette,” he said.

Now he can use it around friends, in their homes, and in bars or restaurants, because there’s not that smoky smell.

People in public, including bar and restaurant workers, ask him what it is, and when he explains it, he says they have no problem with it and often want to try it or see if it could help someone they know quit smoking.

Riddle says he feels much healthier.

“My lung capacity has increased tremendously,” he said. “I’m able to taste foods better now, and can smell better now.”

Some restaurant owners support the idea as well.

Since they don’t burn tobacco, don’t have the resulting smell and don’t need an ashtray, he said he didn’t anticipate a problem differentiating them from regular cigarettes.

Since last year, Illinois has banned smoking in public places, but it’s not obvious whether the language in the law applies to e-cigarettes:

“Smoking” is defined as “the carrying, smoking, burning, inhaling, or exhaling of any kind of lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette, hookah, weed, herbs, or any other lighted smoking equipment.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health regulates the ban, but spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said the agency has not taken a position on whether it applies to e-cigarettes because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved them, so they are not a legal product to begin with.

FDA seizures

Nevertheless, numerous companies sell e-cigarettes on the Internet and at mall kiosks and truck stops.

A starter package runs about $50 for a charger with two electronic cigarettes and five cartridges. Each replaceable cartridge is comparable to three to five cigarettes.

Ray, whose day job is as an information technology analyst, has had two shipments from his manufacturer in China seized by the FDA. He says he’ll keep selling while awaiting a ruling in a court case challenging the FDA’s seizures.

A May 2009 evaluation of e-cigarettes by the FDA found that the two brands of e-cigarettes tested, Njoy and Smoking Everywhere , both released tobacco-generated cancer-causing chemicals and other impurities, including in one case very low levels of diethylene glycol, a toxic component of antifreeze.

E-cigs claiming to contain no nicotine were also found to contain very small amounts of nicotine.

E-cigarettes do not fall under the FDA’s new jurisdiction over smoking, because they don’t contain tobacco. But FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLAncey said the agency believes it should regulate e-cigarettes as a drug in a new product, just as it regulates other nicotine products like patches and nicotine inhalers, available only by prescription.

But approval of those other products required clinical studies showing they helped smokers quit, which e-cigarette makers say they are working on.

The agency also raised concerns that because the e-cigarettes are available in flavors like chocolate and mint – which it recently banned in regular cigarettes – they may increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people.

Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. The National Cancer Institute says tobacco smoke contains more than 60 carcinogens, and quitting smoking has major health benefits. It also notes that nicotine causes addiction comparable to that of heroin or cocaine.

Because of the threat smoking poses, some medical professionals believe that eliminating tobacco would be a giant step forward.

Dr. Kevin Sherrin, president of the American Association of Public Health Physicians – who is not compensated by e-cigarette makers – says conventional cigarettes are “much more hazardous” than e-cigarettes.

To get more smokers to use them instead of cigarettes, he proposes that e-cigarettes be immediately regulated as tobacco products.

The use of e-cigarettes, he argues, could help save 400,000 Americans who die each year from tobacco-related illness, as well as 48,000 people who die from secondhand smoke, and 700 people who die in fires caused by smoking.

The FDA’s DeLAncey says while levels of carcinogens may be far lower than from regular cigarettes, the long-term effect of using e-cigarettes is not known.

“Until they’re safe and effective for their intended purpose,” she said, “we can’t say they’re better for you than a cigarette.”

E Cigs Growing in Popularity

If you frequent your local shopping malls, you’ve probably seen a small kiosk in the center aisles peddling some new gadget that looks like a plastic cigarette. E-cigs are generally the same shape and size of a traditional cigarette. These e-cig kiosks are popping up more and more every day as the popularity of electric cigarettes catchs on across the nation.

Electric cigarettes were originally created in China in 2004. While they are still mostly under the radar in the United States, the popularity is increasing and more and more retailers are setting up shop in shopping malls and on the Internet.

E-Cig Basics

An e-cigarette is powered by an e-cig cartridge connected to an atomozier, connected to a batter. The battery is generally charged with a USB cord plugged into your computer, a battery pack, or a wall charger.  The e-cig cartridges contain a liquid solution of nicotine and propylene glycol (the substance often used in fog machines.) E-cig cartridges also come without nicotine and often include some kind of flavoring as well. Depending on the brand of e-cigs you’re smoking, you can either refill your used cartridge with e-liquid in the flavor of your choice, or replace the disposable cartridge with another one.

Probably the best-selling factor that separates e-cigs from  traditional tobacco cigarettes is health concerns. While the FDA has yet to test the safety of e-cigs, Tthe ingredients have been ruled as safe for general use. They include propylene glycol, sometimes alcohol, natural and artificial flavorings, vinegar, and a couple of other items that make up no more than 1% of the total solution.

Because e cigs don’t contain tar, carcinogens, cancer-causing agents, and smoke, they are being heralded as the safer alternative to smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. When a user inhales the liquid solution, which is being called “vaping”, the vapor that is released by the inhaler is not smoke, contains no odor, and does not cause second-hand smoke. In fact, recent laboratory findings show that the nicotine cannot be found in the vapor that is exhaled.

As more and more retailers of e-cigs emerge, and more and more former traditional smokers are seen vaping in places that normally have a smoking ban, e-cigs will continue to catch on. Don’t be surprised to see electric cigarettes popping up in your workplace, your neighborhood bar and even on airplanes in the near future.
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E-Cigarette Benefits

No More Tar!

While cigarettes emit about 4,000 identifiable chemicals as they are smoked and 69 are known to cause cancer, e-cigarettes contain less than 10 to 20 chemicals on average, depending on the brand or strength purchased.  No more tar blackening your lungs and no more carcinogens.

No More Ashes!

Since e-cigarettes do not burn anything, there are no ashes and no mess associated with them.  Have you ever dropped cigarette ashes on your carpet or on your clothing?  Have you ever fallen asleep with  one in your hand and burnt yourself or your favorite chair?  No more of this with e-cigarettes.  They do not burn and you can set them down anywhere you like.

No More Pressure!

Lighting a cigarette is almost like signing a contract: you have to finish the whole thing.  With e-cigarettes, there is no pressure to do anything!  A normal cigarette you cannot set down just anywhere, you need an ash tray or somewhere to put it out.  They do not have to be held constantly and you do not have to feel guilty about not finishing it. You won’t ever have to say “let me finish this cigarette” ever again.  Pick it up and put it down at will and without guilt.

No More Guilt!

With more and more people that quit smoking, more and more people hound those of us who do smoke to stop.  After purchasing the e-cigarette, you can finally tell your friends and family who have been badgering you for years that you have instantly become a non-smoker.  No more stinky clothes, hair, vehicles, or homes and you don’t have to worry about your family being exposed to the some 69 carcinogens that are in real cigarette smoke.  No more feeling guilty about exposing yourself and everyone you care about to a harmful habit.

Start saving – get a E-Cigarette Starter Kit today!

Can Electronic Cigarettes Help Quit Smoking?

There isn’t an definitive answer to the question of whether e-cigs can help people quit smoking traditional cigarettes because there haven’t been any official studies. Browsing the Internet on e-cig information sites, you’ll find plenty of testimonials. You’ll find little counters displaying how much money people have saved and how many traditional cigarettes they’ve avoided with electric cigarettes.

But they’re still smoking, right? Well, not really.

Electric cigarettes contain no tobacco, tar, carcinogens, carbon monoxide or secondhand smoke. When puffed, e-cigs emit a vapor mist that resembles smoke. They do contain nicotine (the whole purpose) and propylene glycol, the substance used in fog machines.

Earlier this year, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids joined together for a press release demanding a New Jersey senator to call on the FDA to remove electric cigarettes from the market.

They argue that no studies have been done on electric cigarettes to determine if they are harmful or if they aid in quitting smoking. The FDA has said that both nicotine and propylene gylcol are safe for general use, though.

Because they don’t have tobacco in them, electric cigarettes would not fall under new anti-tobacco legislation signed by President Barack Obama on June 23.

Electric cigarettes can be used anywhere and are sold legally at kiosks and on web sites around the country, where smokers, nonsmokers and those wanting to quit are taking notice. Smokers who want to quit are finding smoking e-cigs helpful in reducing or eliminating traditional cigarettes all together, and non-smokers are happy that electronic cigarettes don’t smell. Seems to be a win-win, don’t you think?

Again, no official studies have been performed to say that electronic cigarettes can help quit smoking, but they are certainly an alternative to smoking. E-cig smokers, or vapers as they say, can generally choose their level of nicotine, or even opt for non-nicotine cartridges in a myriad of flavors. In most cases, e-cigs are about 50% to 75% cheaper than traditional cigarettes as well.

What is An E-Cig?
An E-cig is an electronic device that combines technology with nicotine to create a simulated smoking experience for the e-cig user, also known as a vaper.

The E-cig device uses a battery (in the shape of a cigarette) that connects with a heating element, atomizer and nicotine and propylene glycol cartridge (in the shape of a cigarette filter.)

When you drag on the E-cig, it fires up the microprocessor that controls heat and light, which generates the vaporization of the nicotine. The nicotine, combined with the propylene glycol, emits a smoke-like vapor for the user to inhale, thus delivering the nicotine.

When you take a drag off of an E-cig, the experience of smoking a regular cigarette is very similar. Speaking from experience, I inhale my E-cig and immediately feel the hit of nicotine hit, and exhale the vapor. I won’t say it is exactly like a real cigarette, but when I consider that I’m not sucking up all of that tar and carcinogenic material, its close enough for me.

The FDA VS. E-Cigs
The FDA has fresh jurisdiction over tobacco products and they are trying to parlay that control over the relatively new e-cigs, though they’re clearly not tobacco products.
E-cigarettes use a combination of an atomizer, battery and nicotine cartridge to create tobacco, tar and smoke free cigarette. The vapor (simulated smoke) that comes from an e-cig is generated by vaporizing a combination of nicotine and propylene glycol (usually found in fog machines.) The e-cig smoke inhales the vapor rather than carcinogenic tobacco smoke.
Though there’s no tobacco in e-cigs, that’s not stalling the FDA. They’ve recently stopped overseas shipments of e-cigarettes, components and accessories from coming into the United States. The FDA says they need to be regulated before they can be sold in the U.S.
U.S. companies manufacturing and selling E-Cigs, such as Blu Cigs,  seem to be safe so far. You can get e-cigs online, over the phone and in kiosks in just about every mall in America.
What’s confusing is that the FDA has already approved nicotine in various quit smoking aids like patches, gums and inhalers. As for the propylene glycol, the FDA has stated:
“Propylene glycol is metabolized by animals and can be used as a carbohydrate source. Propylene glycol can be ingested over long periods of time and in substantial quantities (up to 5 percent of the total food intake) without causing frank toxic effects.”
Those using e-cigs whether it be to help quit smoking traditional cigarettes, to avoid tobacco taxes, or get around enormous indoor (and sometimes outdoor) smoking bans, will have to band together to let the administration know how they feel.

“It’s a much cleaner, safer way to inhale nicotine,” said Hon, blowing curlicues of e-smoke as he showed off the cigarette in his Beijing office. (He says he doesn’t smoke anymore, except for such demonstrations.)

Hon got his first patent on the e-cigarette in 2003 and introduced it to the Chinese market the next year. The company he worked for, Golden Dragon Holdings, was so inspired that it changed its name to Ruyan (meaning “like smoke”) and started selling abroad.

Get the Full E-Cig Article http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-china-cigarettes25-2009apr25,0,7059574.story

As there isn’t any kind of indicator on e-cigarettes to tell you when to change the cartridge, you have to develop your own system. Most people I’ve spoken with say you’ll generally need to change your cartridge from once per day to once every other day. It really depends on how much you smoke, but in general, expect to change every 24-48 hours.

Personally, I find that I notice less vapor coming from the e-cig and the hit of nicotine growing continually weaker. Before e-cigs, I smoked about a pack a day, and I’m needing to change my cartridge daily. Seeing that 25 cartridges cost me $25 (from BluCigs) I’m paying a buck a day to smoke rather than $6 or more for Marlboro Lights. Not a bad deal.

I’ve also read that you should ensure your battery is fully charged if you think it is too early to change your cartridge but the hit is weaker.

From Slate:

First there was smoked tobacco. Then there was smokeless tobacco. Now there’s something in between.

It’s vaporized nicotine, aka “vaping.” It isn’t quite tobacco, and it isn’t quite smoking. Should we ban it, since it’s sort of like smoking? Or should we tolerate it, since it’s different in important respects? Does the war on smoking require total victory, or can we accept a peace deal that lets the industry, in some form, escape?

Let’s start with a bit of background. Vaporized nicotine has been around in various forms for at least two decades. Lately, it’s been spreading across the world in the form of “electronic cigarettes.” Two months ago, Slate‘s Emily Yoffe tried them out and reported:

The e-cigarette contains no tobacco and produces no smoke. Instead, it is an ingenious electronic device. … The “filter” is a receptacle for nicotine suspended in propylene glycol—the main ingredient in deodorant sticks and artificial smoke machines. … When the user sucks on the filter, a nicotine-laced vapor is produced, satisfying a smoker’s cravings. … [One product] allows you to choose filter cartridges with different levels of nicotine. I selected “none,” which meant my e-cig was the buzz-free equivalent of nonalcoholic beer. The cigarette came in flavors such as tobacco, vanilla, mint, and apple. … Fortunately, as bad as the mist tasted, there was no noticeable odor, and it dissipated almost immediately, and thus didn’t create a secondhand vapor problem.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal and New York Times followed up with similar reports. “The vapor can be inhaled and then exhaled, creating a cloud that resembles cigarette smoke but dissipates more quickly and doesn’t have the lingering odor,” says the Journal. The Times described an e-cigarette that “delivered an odorless dose of nicotine and flavoring without cigarette tar or additives, and produced a vapor mist nearly identical in appearance to tobacco smoke.”

So is vaping smoking? Let’s run the checklist. Cigarette? Yes. Smoke? No. Cloud? Yes. Odor? No. Tar? No. Nicotine? Optional.

Good luck sorting this one out.

The first practical question is whether you can vape in places where smoking is now forbidden. Yoffe tried this and got a mixture of technical tolerance and social disapproval. The Journal adds:

Users have had varied experiences vaping in public, ranging from indifference to odd glances. On a recent day, Shai Shloush, 25, from Knoxville, Tenn., huddled in the back of a movie theater to watch the new Star Trek movie. He powered up his e-cigarette and puffed away. “I was covering the LED part so people wouldn’t notice,” said Mr. Shloush, a former smoker. “Every once in a while I’d be really sneaky about letting out the smoke.”

The Times claims that “because they produce no smoke, they can be used in workplaces, restaurants and airports.” One user, for example, reports that “when everyone was smoking outside in the cold, I just stood in the warm bar, smoking.”

The next question is whether we should officially regulate them like cigarettes. According to the Journal,

The American Lung Association, along with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, recently called for e-cigarettes to be removed from the market. The groups say e-cigarettes have yet to be proven safe and that kids may be attracted to the products, some of which come in flavors like chocolate and strawberry. “Nobody knows what the consumers are actually inhaling,” says Erika Sward, director of national advocacy at the American Lung Association.

Governments seem to be buying this view. The FDA has officially barred importation of e-cigarettes. “These appear to be unapproved drug device products,” a spokeswoman tells the Times, “and as unapproved products they can’t enter the United States.” Australia and Hong Kong have also prohibited the devices.

That’s a pretty awkward position. We restricted smoking, tobacco sales, and advertising based on decades of evidence that smoking was harmful to smokers and bystanders. Now we’re treating electronic cigarettes the same way based on … what? That “nobody knows” how bad they might be? The elements of smoking that justified our war on tobacco—carcinogens, combustion, secondhand smoke, even nicotine—have been removed or made optional. Is it really logical to ignore these differences?

And why should we presume that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, when research on vaporized marijuana suggests the opposite? Here are two such reports quoted last week in the Human Nature blog. First, a 2007 paper in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics:

Whereas smoking marijuana increased CO [carbon monoxide] levels as expected for inhalation of a combustion product, there was little if any increase in CO after inhalation of THC from the vaporizer. This indicates little or no exposure to gaseous combustion toxins. Combustion products are harmful to health and reflect a major concern about the use of marijuana cigarettes for medical therapy as expressed by the Institute of Medicine.

And second, a 2007 study in the Harm Reduction Journal, which found

that respiratory symptoms like cough, phlegm, and tightness in the chest increase with cigarette use and cannabis use, but are less severe among users of a vaporizer. … The odds ratio suggests that vaporizer users are only 40% as likely to report respiratory symptoms as users who do not vaporize, even when age, sex, cigarette use, and amount of cannabis consumed are controlled.

Let’s be blunt about what’s going on here. We tolerated smoking until science proved it was harmful to nonsmokers. As momentum grew, the war on smoking became cultural, with disapproval and ostracism of anyone who lit up. Electronic cigarettes have removed the war’s scientific basis, but our cultural revulsion persists. Therefore, so does our prohibition and condemnation.

Maybe what we need is a convergence of the tobacco debate with the marijuana debate. In each case, vaporization is dissolving the categories and grounds that warranted prohibition. Liberals can see this, but only in the case of pot. Conservatives can see it, but only in the case of tobacco. Go talk to one another. The engineering and re-engineering of drugs will only get more complicated as technology improves. We’d better start thinking rationally about it.

see the full article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2219690/pagenum/all/#p2