Supplemental Toy for Smokers

[strayling]

There were enough posts already to make the poor mis-informed girl feel like .....

Yep, and I think you hit the right note to make her interested instead of automatically hostile.

*polite diplomatic applause*

 

[Walrus]

I tend to think of my batteries as *necessary* resources.

 

[Johnsky]

Sweet, I've been looking for a source of mercury for one of my experiments... seeing as I believe everything that gets written, I should have all the mercury I want from my old laptops lithium-ion battery. (sarcasm)

Thanks for correcting me, my understanding of physics and training as a robotics engineering technician was clearly completely wrong.

... lol.

 

[tribalmasters]

Hehehehe the replies to that article say it all!

 

[Johnsky]

lol, that reply in spanish, though I don't know a lick of it, I can imagine what "estúpidos" means... and that could pretty much sum it up right there.

Oh... no wait... later he says "total estúpida"... yeah, that might be the best sum.


Now that I think of it, perhaps my response was a little harsh...

No... this is the professional world. You have to be held accountable for blatant ignorance. I wouldn't be able to get away with that level of ignorance in the robotics field... the same standards should apply to her as well.

If I were ever to display that level of incompetence in my field, I wouldn't be where I am today.

 

[MisterPuck]

I one-uped that; I emailed her, I'm not really a student at that school, I just thought it would help get her attention. Here was my email:

Hi Alexandria,

I'm a Sophomore at the University of Arizona, and I enjoy reading your articles. However, there was a recent article of yours that had me scratching my head. Earlier today I was reading your article about electronic cigarettes, and as an ex-smoker and an owner of one I wanted to talk to you about that article.

One of the first things I noticed is that you said it "emits puffs of smoke," however, there is no smoker produced by these products. A heating coil heats a nicotine solution to it's boiling point, which causes it to become a vapor; no combustion is carried out by this device at all, which is one of the main reasons why it's less damaging to the body then traditional cigarettes.

You also mention that the batteries will not be recycled properly and leak mercury into landfills, yet these batteries contain no mercury. These are lithium batteries like what's used to power your cell phone; they are rechargeable and last many months. When they do die, some companies will send you a new one in exchange for the old one, and the old one gets properly recycled by the company. Even if they all ended up in landfills, think about how many terrible products of combustion are released into the air with regular cigarettes, and how many cigarettes filters, which are not biodegradable, are disposed of or littered and even end up killing birds and small animals that sometimes mistake them for food.

And as I said before, I've been an ex-smoker for weeks thanks to this device, and have no desire to return to cigarettes, so I have to disagree with you about them not being a smoking cessation device. And out of my 4 friends who have tried this, 3 of them quit, despite not being able to quit in the past with other smoking cessation products.

Towards the end you go on to ask "who knows what types of poisons could be in this liquid nicotine cartridge?" And the answer to that is - "anyone who wants to find out". The liquid contains propylene glycol (which is the main ingredient in anti-perspirants, and is also found in many foods cosmetics, toothpastes and medicines), flavorings which have long been used in food products, and finally nicotine. And unlike normal cigarettes, these ingredients are not chemically altered into other compounds by the product of combustion; they either enter your blood stream in the same form that they would as if ingested, or they are expelled by the lungs.

Because no smoke or known carcinogens are emitted by this device, it is most likely that it will not cause lung cancer or other smoking-related diseases. Essentially, it is no more harmful then the nicotine patch, gum, or inhaler.

It definitely has improved my health also, which is another thing which contradicts your article, I can breathe more easily, I don't get winded walking up a flight of stairs, I'm no longer hacking up phlegm in the morning, and I just feel much better in general. My doctor has even noticed my health improvements and after explaining to him what an electronic cigarette was, he encouraged me to continue using it and asked if I could give him the web addresses of some websites which sell these products so that he could inform his smoking patients about them.

I would really appreciate if you would take the time to respond to this email, so I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,
Daniel Crist

This was her response, just a few minutes after I sent the email:
Mr. Crist,
Thank you very much for taking the time to get my facts straight. I was basing my article off of the products' advertisements etc. that said that they emit smoke so that they look like a cigarette. My concern about them was that they were not yet thoroughly evaluated by the FDA because they are so new and it seemed a little shady since who knows what is really in them? But apparently you do! I value your response. You should send your e-mail to letters@wildcat.arizona.edu so it can be published in our mailbag, or post it as a comment to the article at wildcat.arizona.edu. I think that people would benefit from hearing your response. Thanks again,
Alexandria Kassman
Arizona Daily Wildcat

While I love how you went about this, the writer in me cringes at the number of time the word article is used in the first paragraph. Other than that, good show.
​

 

[DCrist721]

While I love how you went about this, the writer in me cringes at the number of time the word article is used in the first paragraph. Other than that, good show.
​

Oh wow, I should have read this thing over. I'm going to blame it on the painkillers severely clouding my mind, because all my college professors have told me to become an English Major.
Normally I'm very good with varying word usage, and I'm always picking on my girlfriend about it in her accounting papers, and now look at me.
About to go to acupuncture now, whoo-hoo! Actually, my appointment is in 5 minutes at a hospital 30 minutes away. Shiiiittt....

Edit: 2 minutes now. Wait, WTF am I still doing at the computer??

 

[Vince1]

Great job Dan, I like the "fellow student" angle. Classic. I'm afraid this is only the beginning of articles like this from uninformed people looking for what they think will be an easy target for their biased commentary.

 

[jamie]

Agree, very nice tone in that email.

I do wonder about your statement on recycling... the info I find on general battery recycling in China doesn't appear supportive of your comment. Do you have a source?

 

[DCrist721]

Agree, very nice tone in that email.

I do wonder about your statement on recycling... the info I find on general battery recycling in China doesn't appear supportive of your comment. Do you have a source?

I doubt that they do much about battery recycling in China, however the companies I was talking about are the ones that provide warranties, the one which have facilities in the US (be it a secondary factory, a warehouse, or just a ****load of boxes in someones basement). As an individual one can discard all the dangerous and toxic crap that they want without much trouble unfortunately, however companies are forced to take care of these products by the government, and recycling them is the cheapest way to go.