Giving up on e-cigarette

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The Rebel

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I too am a snus user. There are tons of studies and research just a Google away that supports the fact that the harmful health effects of snus are minimal.

I was a 30 year smoker, border line asthmatic, suffered from bronchitis about four times a year, high blood pressure, and basically working my way to full blown COPD. I started vaping in hopes of finally quitting smoking after many failed attempts using regular NRT therapies. Although vaping helped me cut back considerable I was never able to quit completely. After posting my frustrations on here a few members suggested that I might have some luck using Swedish snus to compliment my vaping. Maybe I was missing the alkaloids present in tobacco? So I did the research, read the reports, and decided to give it a try. I was lucky enough to have a local store that carried General brand snus and I bought some having little faith that it would help. I was wrong. Using snus provided me immediate relief from my cravings. I was able to ditch the last couple of smokes I was using and go smoke free for the first time in thirty years. That was over a year ago now and I'm proud to say that I haven't had an analog since. Not one. My breathing has returned to the level of a non-smoker, I got to quit taking blood pressure medicine, and haven't had a bout of bronchitis since.

Do I still use tobacco? Everyday. Am I addicted to nicotine? Absolutely. Am I putting over 3000 chemicals, several that are proven to cause cancer, in my body every hour for 15 hours a day? Nope.

Some people are lucky and can quit by just using vaping. I wasn't one of them but I found a way to do it and it's the least harmful way that worked for me.
 

roadkill46

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i was using Snus for quite awhile until the ole PACT act came into effect! raised prices, could not import direct from Sweden, had to use 'The Northerner's' in USA warehouse so it was not that fresh, but man, when i had some Odin's in my lip it is amazing. So when i could not get it anymore w/o spending way out of my budget i went back to cigs. then a B&M opened in town and went and got a good mod (MVP2) and have not had a smoke since......whenever the counter below says. Swear i have not cheated at all on myself.
got a doc appointment coming up so we will see if the BP meds can go away yet or at least be reduced. Got other issues that require meds, but if discontinuing them one at a time as i see they are not needed would be great!!!
 

skoony

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1. the silica in wicks is not the form of silica that would hurt.
its the silica in silica sand.there is virtually no hydrogen peroxide left if any as
it evaporates so quickly and completly.that is why it it used.no harmful residue to cause rashes or
allergic reactions.
2.drinking water is only considered 99% safe.
regards
mike
 

Southern Tina

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Exactly true for me too!

I haven't read all the responses. I never smoked but I vape. Why? Because I have a medical condition where I can't eat any sugar, carbs, and most fruits (and that's just the beginning). Vaping desserts gives me that sweet taste without the sugar or processed food stuff. That's why I vape. I'm not worried about what silica does, or cotton, or whatnot. It is what it is.
 

yolo_

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beckdg

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I beg to differ.

I see a lot of people here who seem to get angry or upset at anyone who hints at the possibility that e-cigs might not be safe. Of course, they often times try to defend themselves by saying something like, "Of course it MIGHT not be...." or "nothing is 100% safe", or "At least it is safer than cigarettes! No tar!"


Just seeing everyone jump on this guy is kind of icky. He wasn't offensive. He didn't insult or attack anyone. He made a thread basically saying , "Look guys, I wasn't a smoker...and e-cigs aren't working out for me. I have some health concerns, and therefore won't be vaping anymore..."

Seems fine to me.

Seeing people tell him to go buy cigarettes , to me isn't funny. It is like basically telling him to go die, in a subtle way. He wasn't a smoker.....I could see if he came on here and started saying "I have concerns about e-cigs....I don't think they are safe. I'm going to switch back to cigarettes" then I could see people giving him a hard time. For what he posted though? Sorry.....I think everyone is being over-zealous.

he was a smoker. just not a daily or heavy smoker. though, i do think cold turkey shouldn't be an issue... or major health risks for that matter at the level he's suggesting he's smoked. even so, if he's only vaping at the consistency he smoked at, i don't see cause for concern or cause for the overall tone of this thread, either.

methinks he likey too much and feels guilty.

Looks like I'm going to be giving up on e-cigarettes. The first reason is that I shorted out my battery by getting juice on it. The second reason is that it seems that the jury is out on the safety of wick materials. Silica is said to fragment and be inhaled, and cotton, even if organic, is bleached with hydrogen peroxide, which is an oxidizer, not something to be inhaled. I would assume that the amount of hydrogen peroxide in a cotton ball is minuscule, but unless the safety of wick materials can be verified 100%, it's just not a gamble I'm willing to take.

Granted for someone who is getting off of cigarettes the harm reduction would be immense, but since I don't smoke cigarettes and am not trying to get off smoking tobacco, there is no reason to risk using e-cigs, even though the risks are probably low. I'm sure other people have had the same thoughts on the subject.

Unfortunate because I enjoy the taste and vapor of e-cigs over the occasional cigarette I used to smoke everyone once in a while. Now I guess I'll quit cold turkey and not puff on anything. Oh well. Maybe if a verdict is reached on silica wicks or a safe wick material is introduced into the market I will look into it.

Edit: This thread might have been better placed in the health and safety sub-forum, I have no objection to it being moved.
 

Anjaffm

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I too am a snus user. There are tons of studies and research just a Google away that supports the fact that the harmful health effects of snus are minimal.

...

Do I still use tobacco? Everyday. ..... Am I putting over 3000 chemicals, several that are proven to cause cancer, in my body every hour for 15 hours a day? Nope.

Some people are lucky and can quit by just using vaping. I wasn't one of them but I found a way to do it and it's the least harmful way that worked for me.

Excellent! I am glad that this worked for you! Congratulations on making healthier choices! :thumbs:
 

rothenbj

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Just for the record since Mono has exited, the claims that CASAA is anything but a grassroots, user driven organization were quite absurd. I've been around since the very early days of when it was being established. Early enough to be asked if I'd be willing to become a director representing the smokeless tobacco side of harm reduction. At that time I was pretty much a full time volunteer at a thrift shop and taking care of a my aged mother still living alone in her home so I declined.

I arrived at ECF after being talked into trying my first ecig after I had long given up on trying to quit smoking. After somewhere near 2 dozen quit attempts using just about every method ever produced (other than Chantix), I decided I'd take my 43 year, 2-3 PAD habit to my grave. It didn't even bother me, it had been my decision.

I had bought a well known cigalike with an automatic battery. It was okay, but wasn't going to keep me from smoking so I googled and found this site. Soon I had manual battery ecigs and plenty of cartridges and liquid. I became a fan within weeks as my smoking moved to only a half dozen a day. My coughing during the day and wheezing at night were gone within weeks and all was right with the world.

Unfortunately those six cigarettes started to expand at about six months as I got tired of filling cartridges and charging batteries. By this point I wanted to quit moking, not go back to it so I started asking questions. APVs came up, using more nic came up and that funny sounding "snus" came up. I tried it all

First was more nic, 36 and 48mg nic. It really didn't change much other than make me jittery. My first APV helped with its big battery as did my first tanks, but they were pretty faulty in the early days. Then it was a lot of questions to snus users on this site and other on the net. I was a lot like Mono back then. Smokeless tobacco was spit tobacco, disgusting and worse than smoking. It had to be, it wasn't a safe alternative to smoking and I saw those pictures of jaws dropping off. However, there was the internet now and you could find facts rather than propaganda.

Within a month I had read studies from Sweden on the health risks of snus that had been used in Sweden for 100s of years and studied in depth for decades. I learned how the tobacco was no longer flue dried but pasteurized to reduce the nitrosamines. I also learned that Sweden had the lowest incidence of smoking related diseases and how the rest of Europe wrote that off to something that was specific to only Sweden as they banned it's sale elsewhere in Europe and I saw politics. The same politics that were in play in the US as they lied about the dangers of most smokeless products to advance an agenda and keep the tobacco control business going strong.

After my first portion of snus, I never smoked another cigarette. I only use 4 or 5 portions a day, but it replaces everything I got from smoking. That with maybe 2-3ml of nicquid has me working on nearly 4 1/4 years without a single drag on a cigarette. Even people I've known for years are amazed when they find I'm using snus because it's completely outwardly invisible, no spit, no sweat.

I'm not suggesting it's the answer for everyone. However, I could have been told about it 30 years ago and that could have been 30 years less smoking that could have translated to any number of years added on to the end that I'm getting closer to by the minute. :)

Mono was way off base, basically out of ignorance and buying the propaganda that tobacco control has spewed since they realized there was a lot of money in war.
 
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