K... Writing a short article about VAPING for a NON-Vaping audience... any suggestions?

[orachel]

K, so just found out I have to write a brief piece (2-3 pages) about vaping geared toward a primarily non-vaping audience. I imagine most of them will be a lot like many of us were at one time... know virtually nil about the subject other than those crummy disposables they find at the gas station. I was thinking about keeping it quippy, and just going over positives and negatives when weighed against smoking, but wondered if any of you have any ideas? This is via an audience of digital art lovers, and for a zine geared toward dig art play.. primarily women. And the goal here is just basic education, in the hopes of turning on some smoking members enough with the idea that they'll take the step to buy some starter gear, or mention it to someone they love who smokes. Any thoughts? Ideas? I'd also figured I'd include some photos of a few different vaping setups, including some really lovely girly type accessories. lol Just gotta get permission from places like Phiniac, squirrel queen to use their photos. Any other ideas would be welcomed. Have to have this whole thing completed in about 2 weeks. Thanks for ideas!

 

[BHam]

When I first started these are the questions I asked:

What's an ecig?
What is a cartomizer/atomizer?
What's e-liquid?
Can I still get nicotine?
Where should I start (flavors, types of batts) ?
When I should experiment more?

If you're a woman (sorry can't tell but "rachel" is in your name) you know how you use your ecig and you know what a hassle it can be to keep a pack of cigarettes with you or trying to smoke when you're a powerful working woman. Maybe you can write the piece with a sense of how much time is saved while touching on how vaping has changed your habits. Also include what people should expect, your experiences, and like mine (I had bad stomach aches at first and nicotine headaches because when I switched I vaped CONSTANTLY).

I hope this helps.

 

[orachel]

Totally helps! Thanks! And yeah, friend of mine had the heart palpitations from too much nic when she started, but she went down to a 6n juice, and now is perfect. lol

 

[mmrock]

i thought i seen on one of these posts somewhere that the casaa page on ecf has printouts. you could print out some things that has information on e-cigs to give to people who are interested. i couldn't find the link though, but it might be on the casaa pages somewhere.

 

[sanjosse]

Here's the link to the CASAA Printable Material.

Good Luck!

 

[DC2]

You might consider talking about the yummy flavors and losing weight, or at least not gaining weight when quitting smoking.

Are you going to go over the whole FDA scare tactics?
--the bogus anti-freeze assertions
--the ridiculous carcinogens argument

 

[kwalka]

One simple yet effective phrase I like to use whenever possible is that PG is the main stabilizing agent in asthma inhalers. So when one of the uninformed says that contains anitfreeze, that is the comeback I use, as there are light years between the ingredient used that is commonly mistaken as a chemical used in antifreeze.
Then if that doesn't work just call them stupid and say your taking your ball and going home. If I come up with any further earth shattering brilliant thoughts I will let you know. Good luck.

 

[bodrell]

Why do you "have to" write about vaping?

 

[Striker911]

The biggest thing for me in the beginning was making the leap in general. The cost was so high in my mind and it made me panic when I thought about spending so much up front and them not working to get me off analogs. Its a shot in the dark type of thing for someone on the fence.

Then the questions about health came in my mind. What will it do to me? Will it hurt me or anyone around me? Is it just another gimmick? Will I then be hooked on another bad habit?

 

[DC2]

One simple yet effective phrase I like to use whenever possible is that PG is the main stabilizing agent in asthma inhalers. So when one of the uninformed says that contains anitfreeze, that is the comeback I use, as there are light years between the ingredient used that is commonly mistaken as a chemical used in antifreeze.

The idea that the FDA antifreeze scare is related to propylene glycol is a common misconception...

The FDA antifreeze scare is based on the finding of a bit of diethylene glycol (DEG) in one of the cartridges they tested.

While important to take note of since is should NOT be in there, it was found in only one cartridge out of the 18 tested.
It was NOT found in the any of the NJoy cartridges tested, only in one of the Smoking Everywhere cartridges.

And even knowing that, you should also know that the amount of diethylene glycol that was found in that one Smoking Everywhere cartridge (approximately 1% according to the test results) is not particularly harmful and would require sucking down around 600 hundred cartridges in one day to get near a toxic level.

Yeah, that is not the best news, but not the worst news either.
And yes, again, that diethylene glycol should not be in there no matter how little there was.

But also of note is that diethylene glycol is also in cigarettes anyway.
And the FDA allows amounts of less than 0.1% DEG to be present in any products that contain propylene glycol.

But the most important thing to know?
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centers-institutes/population-development/files/article.jphp.pdf

No other tests have ever found diethylene glycol in any electronic cigarette liquid.
And no test, including the FDA test in question, has EVER found DEG in the vapor produced.

 

[Spazmelda]

And even knowing that, you should also know that the amount of diethylene glycol that was found in that one Smoking Everywhere cartridge (approximately 1% according to the test results) is not particularly harmful and would require sucking down around 600 hundred cartridges in one day to get near a toxic level.

The Siegal paper says that DEG was found at 0.1%. Is it 1% or 0.1%? I had always heard 1%, but I just happened to notice that when looking at the chart on page 4 of the report.

 

[DC2]

The Siegal paper says that DEG was found at 0.1%. Is it 1% or 0.1%? I had always heard 1%, but I just happened to notice that when looking at the chart on page 4 of the report.

Well I'll be a son-of-a-gun, you're right!

As far as I know, nobody has ever really known how much DEG they found...
--The FDA press release just said approximately 1%
--The FDA analysis paper just says it was detected

FDA press release
FDA analysis paper

So maybe Dr. Siegal knows something we don't?

 

[kookycole]

Mr.Mann started a great contest thread on similes, metaphors and analogies related to vaping. If you like any of the ones that I contributed, you're welcome to use them in your presentation (you don't have to credit me or anything either). If you like other people's you could always ask permission to use them as well.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ussion/295894-metaphors-similes-analogys.html

 

[orachel]

Oh all good stuff! Thanks so much! Those metaphors similies etc will definitely come in handy. As for another question that was asked... I don't 'have to' per se. lol I help out with a digital zine at my digital art home away from home, and I'm sort of the authority on vaping there. Converted a few members and the owner, so now we've got a mini vaping forum for people who are intrigued, or need their questions answered, and I'm trying to give them some good content ie: inexpensive quality starter kits etc.. vendor recommendations, and the like. This is all in an effort to get the smokers on some good quality gear, as inexpensively and with as little frustration as possible, so they don't have to make the costly frustrating mistakes getting started that so many of us did. BUT its taken off much bigger than anticipated, all in less than 24 hours, so I think I'm going to do the article for zine the following month, allowing me more time to work with some newbies already interested. But I'll start working on the article pretty quickly.

Love the FDA scare tactic.. definitely will touch on that, and the affect big tobacco lobby has had on vaping. Love the quit without gaining weight and wanting to gnaw your own arm off angle.. killer idea. I just figured you guys would have some ideas that might not necessarily occur to me, so wanted to get some feedback. So far everything here is killer.

My weigh in on the pg/vg thing? I think, pg, based on all the stuff I've read, is probably a lot like aspartame. Not the healthiest thing you can ingest or inhale in large quantities, but certainly HUGE degree of harm reduction, over cigs and tobacco products. I vape 100% VG for that reason, plus I'm extremely chemically sensitive, so PG causes me all sorts of side effects. The average PV/VG blend vaper won't have those side effects, however. I'm just sensitive. So its something I tell all newbies to research read the studies, and reach their own conclusion on. I don't eat aspartame either, for the record. lol But some people do, with zero noticeable negatives.

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

Just a thought, and three pages isn't a lot of space in which to do this, but: a story—the story of your multi-year journey into the world and subculture of vaping—might be a hook to the reader, and a platform into which all the pertinent facts of the matter could be interwoven.

The ANTZ will tune you out the moment they recognize you're not toeing the PC line; vapers are already in your pocket. Between the two extremes is the mass, who are more likely to listen—or so I would argue—if you can engage them on an emotional level.

Tell them a story.

 

[kingcobra]

Wow I wouldn't compare PG to aspartame which is clearly harmful to your health. However I would compare aspartame to the crap that the big companies are pushing on people for smoking cessation, including drugs with lots of side effects and nic products that clearly do not work and cost more than cigarettes do.

So if I were writing this, and I'm a professional writer, I would start out talking about the tobacco business in general, and the power they have, move to the conventional approaches to harm reduction/cessation, explain what we do, what criticisms we're faced with, what is behind the propaganda against us, and finally what we really have to bring to the table to not only improve lives, but save them

 

[Bullette the Cowdog]

Oh, and since the market is women, include the trend of pink batteries & nail stickers!
Good luck. Come back & Give us a link to the finished product

 

[Stosh]

Simple explaniation that may hook some, is that you're not "quit or die" quitting, just switching to a much safer nicotine delivery system that smells good, tastes good, lets the guys smell your perfume, not smoke....

 

[Spazmelda]

The Siegal paper says that DEG was found at 0.1%. Is it 1% or 0.1%? I had always heard 1%, but I just happened to notice that when looking at the chart on page 4 of the report.

Well I'll be a son-of-a-gun, you're right!

As far as I know, nobody has ever really known how much DEG they found...
--The FDA press release just said approximately 1%
--The FDA analysis paper just says it was detected

FDA press release
FDA analysis paper

So maybe Dr. Siegal knows something we don't?

Read back through the FDA analysis paper and it does say in the text that it was found at appx 1%, but the chart just lists it as detected, and as far as I can see they didn't list a LOD for DEG. Maybe I just missed it. I dunno. Maybe Dr. S had a typo or maybe there was some rationale behind saying it was at 0.1%.

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

Mr.Mann started a great contest thread on similes, metaphors and analogies related to vaping. If you like any of the ones that I contributed, you're welcome to use them in your presentation (you don't have to credit me or anything either). If you like other people's you could always ask permission to use them as well.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ussion/295894-metaphors-similes-analogys.html

I think I've only put one or two in that thread, but welcome to it as well. My comparison of switching from coke to coffee/tea for a caffeine drinker seems to be pretty popular. The vaping gripes thread might be a good one to study over as well. See what people's gripe are, and how they might have overcome them.

Be as realistic as possible about the battery life issues on look a likes, and how a gas station model might let you find out if you like it, but if you like it, you're probably going to want longer battery life soon, or have to carry around a PCC everywhere you go. I've only been doing this for a little over a month, but read and retain *a lot* and everything on ECF is good stuff. Put some math in there. After an initial investment of XXX for something like an eGo or kGo kit and some juice, your monthly expenses for consumables (juice, cartos, carts, atties, whatever) is estimated as YYY. If you smoked 1 pack a day at ZZZ dollars per pack, you save AAA per month. The heath benefits are of course one of the paramount benefits of switching ... but seeing dollars and cents really helped me take the plunge. I'm not on a fixed income like some ECF members I've seen, but I'm sure not rolling in the dough either, so a forecasted savings of close to $150/mo for me is a big deal.