Got my first e-cig but still hesitant in even trying it

[KHex]

This is no way a trolling post or purposefully negative but I felt I should offer an honest opinion. I used to smoke for five years from 15.5-20. I had to stop as I have damned bad post-nasal drip which made me that much more susceptible to bronchitis. So instead, I opted for SNUS and the occasional nasal snuff but cigarettes even to this today make a happy man even though I have not had one. Now, looking at alternative or harm reductions means literally that, harm reduction. When looking at the e-cig in front of me I know HOW it is supposed to be less harmful and applaud the device itself but what makes me wary is not the device but the juice and human dishonesty. Many of these juices I have discovered (I asked a couple users of e-cigs) even through they are sold from the USA, come from China. Now let me ask you, would any of you take some liquid from a random guy off the street? Nope. But at the promise of smoking again? Those odd increase and got me so excited that I actually ordered a decent amount of e-juice from Puresmoker and Electroniccigarettesales.com

For one you look at China and there seeming disregard for health matters and standards. I don't know how comfortable I am in reading this after seeing so many moritying pictures of the environment is over there and horror stories of how they treat consumable products. I'm not saying this applies to all Chinese producers of e-juice but not all countries share the same values or morals. Some people are starving and will sacrifice others health to improve theirs to ensure survival.

Another is the fact of the plastic containers. I read a post about how someone was curious as to if the plastic cartridges through the process would produce anything harmful to the body. The poster was then told that it depended on certain catagories which were missing on most cartridges. So basically, that is in the dark to.

To me it IS harm reduction if people keep it clean but there are more what-ifs and "I don't knows" than certainties when it comes to this alternative. Again, I want to smoke what's in front of me very badly, I just want to know I'm not smoking colored water with pesticide.

 

[Lurker]

Life sucks. Deal with it. Try your new toy!

 

[ned Zeppelin]

Go on be a devil you might surprise yourself and really enjoy it

 

[Schroedinger's cat]

I can see where you come from, and here is what I think: if you currently manage not to smoke and be satisfied with snus, etc, you may as well leave the e-cig alone. If, on the other hand, you think you are going to fall off the wagon and start on cigarettes again, go ahead and try this instead.

The liquid is made in China, and God only knows what's in there but, if it is an alternative to smoking, it has to be really bad to be worse than cigarettes, and this is what makes me e-smoke without obsessing about it.

You can check out the various thread on health and e-smoking, if you want to see the evidence collected by the forum members (not complete by any means, but overall reassuring). In the end, we are all guinea pigs in this endeavor. As you said, the keyword is "harm reduction".

By the way, there is a liquid made in the US (Johnsons Creek), although we don't really know the ingredients in it, and some people have had problems with their atomizer using it. If you are in the UK, I think that Pillbox has his liquids tested, but I don't know where they are produced.

 

[KHex]

Well, I tried it although the cartridge I tried I'm not so hot about. I tried the ever so "loved" "marlbro" which tasted like perfume mixed in with some teryaki chicken. Now if I could just find a duplicate of a Lucky Strike Filter, I'd be in heaven.

 

[Dale]

Vaping is definitely not smoking, so don't expect a duplicate experience. Vaping allows you to maintain the "hand-to-mouth, inhale and exhale, receive nicotine" habit and it comes closer than anything esle, but it is not cigarette smoking. It is an excellent (for many, preferable) substitute and, at the same time, a new vice all its own.

It is also, despite the advertising copy from many manufacturers and distributors, not "proven healthy and safe." Fact is the jury is still officially out. Vaping makes use of nicotine and flavoring suspended in propolyne glycol, and while pg has been tested and approved safe by most governments for human consumption, it has not been extensively tested for inhallation effects. (Can anyone produce the results of the tests performed in - where was it, New Zealand?) As others have pointed out, we are very much pioneers as far as this practice goes. It seems safe thus far, but we just don't have hard data collected over time yet.

All that said, commen sense seems to say and popular wisdom agrees that it can't be any more dangerous than the known effects of all known uses of tobacco.

I add my voice to those saying - you bought the gear, give it a try. You might like it. It certainly works out cheapr than buying smokes (if you don't allow yourself to become a device fiend as some have done).

 

[MagusSteele]

2 things here.
One - You dont know everything in regular cigarette, and what you do know kills everything.
2 - its a metal pipe with a battery, not much Dog or Baby food involved.

As for the Liquid, it hasnt killed any of us yet, and its mostly Fog Juice. The kind used in a Dance Club or Haunted House, and again, I dont think anyone has died from that yet, not that i know of.

Even if the E-Liquid was half Sewage, it wouldnt be as bad as Cigarettes.
The plastic leaching factor, is sooo minor because you would have to EAT 800 carts to see any effect even if they had a chemical in them. The plastic dishes you heat things in the microwave give of 100s of times more chemicals into your food everytime you use one.

If you really are that concerned, that is perfectly ok. Everyone on this forum monitors everything related to the E-cig community.
I do not have the link, but there have been tests on content of the E-liquid from different manufactures, they have recieved a clean bill of heath.
Thats not to say it can NOT happen then something gets into a batch, but that can happen at even the most cautious factory, and has MANY times here in the states, where we have more safety/food laws then we have people.

The decision is yours, but i would say, try it, if it does effect you badly, stop.
OR, i have heard of some people taking all the information they can print out, and the E-cig, and taking it to check with thier doctor first. Everyone that has, that i know of, had thier doctor say, anything to stop smoking, or cut down drasticly, and that they couldnt find anything really harmfull.

 

[Bertrand]

OR, i have heard of some people taking all the information they can print out, and the E-cig, and taking it to check with thier doctor first. Everyone that has, that i know of, had thier doctor say, anything to stop smoking, or cut down drasticly, and that they couldnt find anything really harmfull.

I think Tropical Bob made the observation that he "got the feeling that if I were eating down lead pellets to cut down on smoking I would still have gotten an Attaboy" from his doctor.

 

[MagusSteele]

OH, i wanted to add.

I'm not smoking colored water with pesticide

That IS basicly what it is.

Nicotine is a pesticide, and its colored PG, with water in it, and maybe a little alcohol thrown in for good measure.
Small amounts of nicotine are fine, and have benifits you already know, its the other chemicals in Cigarettes that do the harm to you with the worst being the Tar that is hard to clean out.
Large doses or Pure nicotine, yes, can kill.

 

[jpc815]

This is no way a trolling post or purposefully negative but I felt I should offer an honest opinion. I used to smoke for five years from 15.5-20. I had to stop as I have damned bad post-nasal drip which made me that much more susceptible to bronchitis. So instead, I opted for SNUS and the occasional nasal snuff but cigarettes even to this today make a happy man even though I have not had one. Now, looking at alternative or harm reductions means literally that, harm reduction. When looking at the e-cig in front of me I know HOW it is supposed to be less harmful and applaud the device itself but what makes me wary is not the device but the juice and human dishonesty. Many of these juices I have discovered (I asked a couple users of e-cigs) even through they are sold from the USA, come from China. Now let me ask you, would any of you take some liquid from a random guy off the street? Nope. But at the promise of smoking again? Those odd increase and got me so excited that I actually ordered a decent amount of e-juice from Puresmoker and Electroniccigarettesales.com

For one you look at China and there seeming disregard for health matters and standards. I don't know how comfortable I am in reading this after seeing so many moritying pictures of the environment is over there and horror stories of how they treat consumable products. I'm not saying this applies to all Chinese producers of e-juice but not all countries share the same values or morals. Some people are starving and will sacrifice others health to improve theirs to ensure survival.

Another is the fact of the plastic containers. I read a post about how someone was curious as to if the plastic cartridges through the process would produce anything harmful to the body. The poster was then told that it depended on certain catagories which were missing on most cartridges. So basically, that is in the dark to.

To me it IS harm reduction if people keep it clean but there are more what-ifs and "I don't knows" than certainties when it comes to this alternative. Again, I want to smoke what's in front of me very badly, I just want to know I'm not smoking colored water with pesticide.

Hello,

I too had smoked for years, was up to about a pack and a half a day for the last of my smoking. I am a nurse, and yes, I knew better, but that didn't change things, 30 years ago when I started we weren't told of all this damage. I have been using these e-cigs for over 3 months now, my coughing is gone, my sinuses have cleared up immensely. I have not noticed any side effects, other than a headache if I just puff and puff, but I also got one with smoking too many cigaretes also. I had tried all the nicotine replacement devices on the market, some of the medications and I feel like I have experienced fewer problems with this that I have any other thing I have tried. Tobacco is tobacco, and we REALLY never knew what kind of pesticides and additives were in it either, and no matter how it is taken, it is still tobacco. So you just have to weigh your risks, there are risks with everything. I decided this was the lesser of all the other risks I had already taken!

 

[trog100]

I'm not smoking colored water with pesticide

love that one.. he he he

trog

 

[Silver]

(Can anyone produce the results of the tests performed in - where was it, New Zealand?)

Happy to oblige, the report can be found here.

Cheers,
Silver

 

[Kate]

Freesmoke is made in a Spanish lab, Johnson Creek in the US and there's a French made juice but I don't know much about it (the seller didn't reply to my email enquiry). Like most of the other (Chinese made) eliquids, we still don't really know what's in them or if they are tested for toxic effects.

Ruyan and Wicked are from China. Ruyan are leading the field in toxicology tests and clinical trials on their juice. Wicked is tested in a UK lab for ingredients and to assess suitability for inhaling.

Inhaling anything other than clean air is probably not a good thing, our lungs were not designed for it. Addicts use damage limitation criteria to justify esmoking but there are no known health benefits.

 

[Dale]

Happy to oblige, the report can be found here.

Cheers,
Silver

Thanks!

Insofar as we can assume that Ruyan juice and others juices are fundamentaly similar, this answers a lot of concerns. The verdict seem to be "safe as far as we can tell."

 

[Silver]

Insofar as we can assume that Ruyan juice and others juices are fundamentaly similar, this answers a lot of concerns. The verdict seem to be "safe as far as we can tell."

Which doesn't really bring us much further than we were before, but hey, we'd already decided we're the guinea pigs for this stuff, right ?

Only time will really tell, but I do find it somewhat reassuring that I have yet to find any tales of terrible woe from peeps who have been e-smoking for a longer period of time (say, more than a year)...

Cheers,
Silver