There's been a lot of talk about Whole Tobacco Alkaloid (WTA) liquids the past several days, and I have to admit that I find the subject intriguing, but at the same time I have some reservations. I know there are a bazillion chemicals other than nicotine in analogs, a number of which are known carcinogens. Does anyone know if the WTA contain all the carcinogens? My objective is to quit smoking for health reasons, so I am leery of trying something that might still be pretty hazardous. Does anyone know anything about this subject, or know of any site where I could get more information?
Note: Yes, I know I analyse the heck out of things, that is why I chose sherlockholmes as my moniker.
I guess I should name myself Sherlock II then, because i did a ton of reading about it the other day. If you
Google it, you can find out a lot. Here's a nutshell view.
There are a bunch of alkaloids that have things in them like the MAO inhibitors, which are mood-altering. For instance, a lot of people who quit smoking experience depression, and it might be from the lack of them. They are in the WTAs that were extracted. The really bad stuff is TSNA (tobacco-specific nitrosamines), which are probably not in WTA, though I'm not sure about that. Apparently, how much TSNA might be in them depends on the kind of tobacco used. Some has more than other varieties, some less. Some of the stuff in WTA are: anatabine, anabasine, nornicotine, beta-carboline alkaloids (which have the MAOIs and include harman and norharman), continine, and myosine. No one knows how harmful these might be. There's a theory that they may work synergistically with each other and with nicotine. However, there's a lot more toxic stuff that comes from burning, and if you are vaping, nothing is burning, so you aren't getting tars and carbon monoxide. The bottom line is that vaping WTA is probably safer than smoking but probably not as safe as vaping liquid with only nicotine. So liquid with WTA in it is recommended not for the person who is happily vaping their nic-liquid but for those like me who are still smoking because, no matter the flavor, nic-liquid just doesn't seem to do it. The safety of vaping liquid with WTA has been likened to snus (snuff) which apparently is pretty safe.
After reading so much about it, I decided it's got to be safer than smoking, and if it gets me off the cancer sticks, then it's a better alternative. Also, it's much more expensive than regular nic-liquid because the extraction process is more involved, and so far, no one's mass-producing it, so it's being made in small batches. That's why, when it goes on sale, it sells out right away. As the demand is growing, they hope to make more of it at once and then it'll be more available.
Because of expense and availability issues, I'm hoping that this will not be a permanent situation but a weaning process. But the first step is to see if it even affects me. If I can't feel any different than vaping nic-liquid, then I must be one of the people that don't benefit from it, and I can give up the idea. It would be a lot cheaper to just persist with the ordinary liquids and hope that I can finally rid myself of analogs once and for all.
The effects people have felt are: a lightheadedness similar to when you smoke a cigarette after not having one for a long time, relaxation and sleepiness, and a decrease in the urge to have a cigarette, and even a decrease in the time vaping. Some people wonder if the chain-vapers are actually people who might benefit from WTA. They may not be getting what their body is asking for and they keep vaping, trying to get it.
A lot of this is theory and supposition, since it's so new, and no research has been done.
I hope this has helped. For a fuller picture, I suggest you look on ECF for references to it and read the discussions, see some of the reviews on YouTube, look at sites other than ECF, etc., as I did.