In the long battle to separate vaping from smoking in the minds of those that do neither; I seem to have come up with a comparison that makes sense to people that see no difference between smoking and vaping. I have been off smokes and on PV's since July of '09, my first step in vaping at work was a no brainer... I simply kept my mouth shut and did it as stealth as possible. Unfortunately, it didn't take long before my smoking buddies wanted to know why I never went down to smoke with them anymore and even though I could have said I quit and let it at that, I felt somewhat obligated to introduce them to e-cigs so they could have a chance to switch too. It wasn't long before the office had several vapors and not long after that in which management noticed the lack of smoke breaks and started to look into the mass exoduses from smoking. As the smokers all talked about the new and amazing e-cig to the boss each of them pointed to me as the "knowledgeable" one on the subject and so I had to give the management a run down of the whole thing and was bombarded with Q & A's. This all went well, and it was looked at as a good thing and we were left alone to vape and work at our pleasure. Then the 
FDA put out that load of non-sense about anti-freeze (I'm sure you all remember and just gave a grimmest at the memory). The next day all hell broke lose and I spent the whole day gathering information to battle that non-sense but it was too late, the non-smokers in the office who had not even been able to smell a thing and had no ill effects and enjoyed the fact that none of us smelled like an ash tray, started the .....y ball rolling and vaping in the office was treated the same as smoking and we were once again banished to the elements 
(or in most cases the bathrooms...lol). Then the news that all the concern was over hyped came out and the storm settled a bit, I took the time to start the fight to distance vaping from smoking again because at this point I was pretty much disgusted with the mis-information. After several years of politely and professionally voicing my opinion the CEO was in town and my chance to bring this all the way to the top was here. I had not known he would be in and had not prepared at all, I was just as shocked to see him as I was when he walked over to me and said "Well, give me a good reason why I should allow this vaping stuff in here and don't give me the usual it will cut down on smoke breaks non-sense either, I've heard that from everyone! I want to know how it differs from smoking!” And I said "Well sir, it differs in the same way beer does from soda, both products come in a can or a bottle, and both are consumed in the same manner. However, one we are free to drink at the office and one we are not. My point is that just because two things are done in similar ways does not make them the same thing". I am now sitting at my desk and vaping with full approval from the CEO of my company and so are several ex-smokers! I think we should all start to push the realization that vaping is not smoking and that other then the physical act of it; it can not be compared to smoking. As a matter of fact, I no longer consider it an addiction, it's simply a hobby of mine that I enjoy, and my doing it has no negative effects on anyone... other then Phillip Morris! ha-ha! 
FDA put out that load of non-sense about anti-freeze (I'm sure you all remember and just gave a grimmest at the memory). The next day all hell broke lose and I spent the whole day gathering information to battle that non-sense but it was too late, the non-smokers in the office who had not even been able to smell a thing and had no ill effects and enjoyed the fact that none of us smelled like an ash tray, started the .....y ball rolling and vaping in the office was treated the same as smoking and we were once again banished to the elements (or in most cases the bathrooms...lol). Then the news that all the concern was over hyped came out and the storm settled a bit, I took the time to start the fight to distance vaping from smoking again because at this point I was pretty much disgusted with the mis-information. After several years of politely and professionally voicing my opinion the CEO was in town and my chance to bring this all the way to the top was here. I had not known he would be in and had not prepared at all, I was just as shocked to see him as I was when he walked over to me and said "Well, give me a good reason why I should allow this vaping stuff in here and don't give me the usual it will cut down on smoke breaks non-sense either, I've heard that from everyone! I want to know how it differs from smoking!” And I said "Well sir, it differs in the same way beer does from soda, both products come in a can or a bottle, and both are consumed in the same manner. However, one we are free to drink at the office and one we are not. My point is that just because two things are done in similar ways does not make them the same thing". I am now sitting at my desk and vaping with full approval from the CEO of my company and so are several ex-smokers! I think we should all start to push the realization that vaping is not smoking and that other then the physical act of it; it can not be compared to smoking. As a matter of fact, I no longer consider it an addiction, it's simply a hobby of mine that I enjoy, and my doing it has no negative effects on anyone... other then Phillip Morris! ha-ha! 
