Vaping is an alternative that works to get you away from tobacco, and hopefully you will use it as a cessation device to get off nicotine but thats not its primary purpose. Personally and professionally I am rapidly against the idea of a non smoker taking up vaping. Because of the very real and potent psychological aspects of being addicted to tobacco smoking and in part to nicotine vaping "could" be a slippery slope.
12 years off cigarettes and you want to go through the physical mechanics of smoking? Why? You have managed to not have to do this for 12 years so why pick up that part of the addiction again? And to be honest although all that parts we "know" about in vaping have what we think are few risks (ignoring the nicotine at the moment) we just don't know 100% that there is not something else there. If you were a smoker right now I would be saying 'pick up that PV right now and walk away from the tobacco but do you really want something that will mechanically and/or psychologically addict you again and 'might' turn out to have further risks down the line. For a smoker that is still way better than 4000 chemicals (some known others not) and 60 known carcinogens, as well as tar and other particulates and even if 2 years from now they find out that inhaling food grade flavoring has a risk, even that with the 2 risks with nicotine its still a whole lot better than tobacco.
BUT you, one of the very lucky one have gotten away from it. Stay away from it. While you may do it with 0mg at least in the beginning the fact that there could be a issue with vaping that shows up at a later point just is not worth it. Besides, even if PG/VG bit of flavoring is pretty innocuous and is well know in relation to the body - its is based on ingestion not inhalation.
We also don't know the 'slippery slope' side of things. There has never been much question in the past which cam first - the nicotine addiction or the oral fixation or the mechanical addition but we do know they are tightly interwoven and that one can drive you bad to the other. With a ex-smoker there is a high probability that doing any part of the addictive pattern will cause you to go back into other. Just the idea of being able to pick up an e-cig to replace your food to mouth habit gives me a good idea that oral fixation was a big deal in your smoking habit. There is a good possibility that doing all the steps (holding to mouth, inhaling, exhaling, with the social aspect, new toy so to speak) it would not be but a quick hop for your brain to convince you to try nicotine. All it takes is something to happen like running on of juice on a trip and depending on what a tobacco store has, and oops they don't have 0mg. Your predisposition is not going to tell you to just stick it in the glovebox and walk away; you could very well find yourself thinking nice bottle of 6mg nicotine won't be a big deal. Then you're no longer a recovering or ex-nicotine addict.
There is already anecdotal evidence of cases where people have taken up vaping with 0 mgs never having smoked for varies reason "hubby vapes and I want to be involved with what he does", "I wanted the same extra breaks my smoking co-workers get", "they have parties and only vapers can go to", "my girlfriends are all vapers", "my mother bought me an ego so I could learn to vape" and all are or were 0mg nicotine users and proud of it. That's until something stranger than the original vaping excuse convinced them to use nicotine just one time. As an ex-smoker you know what a nicotine addiction is and how insidious that can be.
In the examples above one of them are not from reports but a direct experience in my life. The woman wanted to start vaping because hubby did it to stop smoking. He got really really involved in it wit noddin and such - went to users groups, meet, conventions, had all sorts of vaping social things going on. Wife was left out. Although invited she felt anxious about 'butting' in when she was a non vaper but most if not all her social life existed around his and with his new interest she was basically left at home. Lots of ways to deal with something like this - so no real quick fix for the long term but a few that would be pretty fast, but in her mind vaping was an immediate answer. She could buy a starter kit today and be the belle of the vaping world tomorrow. EVERYONE, including all her husband vaping contact, the forum they were on, everywhere told her not to do it, don't start but as we know people often don't take advice when its not what they want to here. It was great for a while, probably better than some of the more realistic things she should have tried and she was very proud of her accomplishment and it worked out for her when everyone had been so negative, Well you be the judge of how well it worked out. It was interesting to watch as a previously unknown oral fixation came out, as did a propensity for obsessive behavior (thats a blog in itself). So she was happy as pie and everyone else was shaking their heads and a few were waiting (t turns out including hubby) for the next shoe to drop. Skip ahead to a state wide vapers meeting held on the other side of the state, in sort of a remote area at a camping retreat. Skip ahead day 2 of meeting at the big party and oops she thought she had brough that extra bottle of 0 mg e-juice because she was halfway through the one she had in her purse... and no. (If you a vaper the moto a backup for a backup also means your e-juice). So she wandered the other members looking for someone with 0 mg e-juice, Sadly but not had to understand no one had 0mg nicotine e-juice of any flavor. Hubby suggested she just put away the PV and not worry about it. Well that she was not about to do and asked for his e-juice (he used like 24mg strength) and he absolutely refused which lead to an argument and him leaving and going back to their cabin leaving her with all the meet members - she was upset over the argument especially publically, shaking, crying and had everyone' attention. She started asking for e-juice from anyone.. she had to vape to calm down (sounds familiar). Everyone either said no she did not want to do that, or was very reluctant and that just upset her worse. Finally someone resurrected some old 6mg e-juice on the bad idea that 6mg would not do much just this one time, and of course she thought the same thing. She is now and has been for better part of a year using 18 mg of nicotine in her e-juice,
Yes, I know she is an adult and its legal and no one has the right to tell her know. But they had info she did not - direct knowledge of just how fast nicotine can grab hold and how hard it is to let go and the position she was in where her brain could make her ignore the risk would never have developed if she had not started vaping to fix other things.
This is not a new social craze... basically how we got into decade of smoking being okay because everyone was doing it. Its not the newest cool trend, etc. Its not a diet device or whatever. Its not a palliative to boredom. There are many other things that can do that for you. You just need to find them.
I don't mean to sound cruel because anyone coming to this forums sees the great time everyone is having here and wants to be part of it. And to those of you members who want to accuse me of driving a new member away - I am not trying to do - I actually think that there is a very good reason for ex-smokers and non-smokers to be involved her, if nothing more than they are part of the voting public that need the information and education that is here to get it out in the mainstream.
And there are lots of things that an ex or non-smoker can get involved in here - with the political aspect, working with casaa or the ECF forum itself if they need help from technical people smoker or non; if they want hands on activities maybe get involved in building new mods, answering questions on how to figure out an ohm from a hole in the wall before someone blows up their battery and half the bathroom (if they are technically inclined that way). Lots of way to be with the forum without vaping I would think. Just reading and answering people with links or "I read" answers even if they don't have first hand knowledge can be helpful, Having ex-smokers around as support for those working down to 0 mg nicotine would be great.
The only reason I would say that there would be for recovered smoker at the 12 year mark for vaping would be if 1) they had already smoked a cigarette in the past 48 hours (chances are they are now no longer and ex-smoker) and so vaping is the better choice when it comes to that next ciggy if you can't make it through 24 more hours without slipping again. Oer that you are really unable to cope with day to day activities because you cannot smoke - then go ahead and start vaping because you have to function in life.
The eating can be an issue but vaping is not the solution. You have the same oral fixation 3/4 of america has which causes all sorts of issue but there are other ways to go from stocking only fruits and veggies, lo cal snacks, drinking a great deal more fluid (hard on a trucker that can't make every pit stop - I understand). Its really better to work on the getting rid of the need for the hand mouth thing then reinforcing it with vaping. The fact that you're off the nicotine one of the greatest helps for oral fixation snackers and a way to get rid of that monkey is often hypnosis.
But anyway you go I really can't be forceful enough it trying to convince you to not go back to old habits and vaping, an alternative to smoking, is an old habit even if the chemical is not there.
Now if you're saying that the snaking is only just holding off a new smoking habit (but not because you see that as a way to keep weight off) then perhaps. with a lot of thought built into and a lot of safety valves so you don't get maneuvered back to nicotine - to keep you off cigs, then it maybe the way to go.
Zero nic is definitely worth a try. There are some UK vendors, I think. If you go to the UK sub forum, they will know more.
