The error here is by the manufaturers and retailors.

[CaptJR]

With a little thought back when this all began it could have been assumed that some people would have objection to any cigarette, electronic or analog.

What is needed (likely to late) is to stop calling PVs 'electronic cigarettes'.


Part 2.

When does a PV stop being an electron cigarette and start being a PV?
Back when I first started vaping I was using the ones that were made to look like a cigarette. I made the natural progression through the entire product line concluding with the purchase a little while back of my ProVari.

I do not consider my ProVari an 'ecig'. It is a PV, personal vaporizer.

How about a box mod. How could that be considered an ecig? It doesn't do anything that an analog cig does nor does it look like one.


We, the community should have never started calling these ecigs.

 

[Stop Smoking]

Very tricky here in terms of what is defined as a medical device and what is a personal device. I think and have had many discussions on this topic that vaporizer is used for both medical and personal items. The use of terms such as ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery system) are certainly not in the best interest of vapers. PV- still a bit iffy, but I agree the time to move away from "cigs...etc." is at hand. It is still better to be a tobacco product than a drug.

 

[CaptJR]

Very tricky here in terms of what is defined as a medical device and what is a personal device. I think and have had many discussions on this topic that vaporizer is used for both medical and personal items. The use of terms such as ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery system) are certainly not in the best interest of vapers. PV- still a bit iffy, but I agree the time to move away from "cigs...etc." is at hand. It is still better to be a tobacco product than a drug.

A coffee cup or coffee machine is not considered a drug delivery device. Don't know why a PV would be. However, they have a habit of making anything mean anything they want as long as it suits their purpose don't they.

 

[bogs8812]

From now on I'll make sure to not mention the word e-cigarette again

 

[TennDave]

Funny but when people ask me what I'm "smoking," I just say I switched to "electronics" and show them my device (I typically have a Reo mini with me) and leave it at that....they seem to get it somehow.

 

[JmeMcG]

I wish I could think of a smoother answer when someone asks "what is that?". I refuse to use words such as "cigarette, smoke, smoking, tobacco or even e-cigarette" when I try to answer their question. I usually say "it's my personal vaporizer", which sounds too vague and doesn't really answer their question. This leads to more explaining by me, which usually end up with the person with a look on their face like I'm trying to be sneaky and elusive and they say something to the effect of "Oh... so it's an e cigarette". They end up understanding what it is, but I personally hate the term "e cigarette" also. I received a business card with a shipment from a local vendor yesterday and on the back this is printed:
"This is my personal vaporizer. It is not a cigarette. It does not contain tobacco, emit smoke, have a flame, or have burning of any type. As such it is not subject to any state, federal, or local "No Smoking" laws.
This vaporizer is a battery powered device with a small atomizer that vaporizes a solution of food grade glycerin, flavorings and nicotine (optional).
What you see exhaled is mostly harmless water vapor. No tar, carbon monoxide or carcinogens are produced. For more information on this or other electronic cigarettes please visit (name of vendor... wasn't sure if I can put this in...) at (vendors website)."

My PV is not a model that resembles a cigarette. I did not want one that looked like a cig because I am not a cigarette smoker anymore. I am a vaper. I do wish that I had a better answer/way of explaining without seeming so elusive and without comparing it to a cigarette or smoking. I describe it as an inhaled nicotine delivery device. We can try to come up with any name other than "e cigarette", but I think the vapor is still the main hang up for most. If it looks like smoke, it is viewed as the same as smoke and although a PV may not even remotely resemble a cigarette in appearance, you can't change the vapor from resembling smoke enough that people are going to be able to see it as anything but smoke.

I don't get asked a lot by strangers, btw, but have noticed that even the people that personally know me, that I have told "I quit smoking" act like I really haven't. It's frustrating. In the past when trying to quit with the patch or gum, etc. (which I was never successful with) I would get the "good job" and "high five" from these same people, but because I now vape and they see the vapor they act like I am totally cheating and that I haven't quit smoking at all. Whatever. I'm happy and not about to quit vaping, but do wish the public opinion about vaping was not associated with or compared to "being just like smoking".

 

[TennDave]

I hear you- there is no easy answer... I have friends in the "great! but now, quit smoking that thing" camp. You just have to educate folks one person at a time. Know that no matter what you say or evidence you point them to, some people just don't want to get it. Don't let them drag you down...just move on.

 

[Wolf308]

I can tell you one thing for sure. And I take it from experience from my line of work. The media and those who oppose it will call it whatever they have to to make it sound dangerous, scary, and completely wrong to get as many people behind the bandwagon as humanly possible.

 

[VictoryNotVengence]

should have called it an i-cig. sounds much cooler.

 

[kingcobra]

I call it my "nicotine inhaler" and have only got positive feedback, even from people who think all smokers should die quickly and get it over with. They hear that and say way to go man, keep it up, best of luck quitting So it really does pay to try to associate yourself with a product from big pharma, because as always, they have the government and the people in their back pocket. So this is fancier version of that. If we call it an e cigarette though this will conjure up all the propaganda about these things being deadly poison and all that

 

[DaveP]

I just explain that my device keeps me from smoking tobacco by satisfying the nicotine urge and the feel of smoking by producing a water vapor or steam that provides a much lower nicotine level that is almost entirely absorbed, thus only a trace of nicotine is exhaled.

I explain that people who switch to this device find themselves with the cigarette cough going away and an increased ability to exercise through improved cardiovascular health and healing of the lungs over remarkably short periods. Many say that they were able to start jogging again after the switch.

If I'm pressed for a label, I refer to it as a replacement for tobacco that operates on a steam principle something like a heated vaporizer that people use with aromatic water. You could call it a nicotine vaporizer or a safe alternative to cigarettes, thus the name electronic cigarette.

The important point is that you emphasize the experiential health improvements associated with its use. Whatever you call it, people should associate that label as being a healthier alternative through a short explanation of the benefits.

 

[twowings]

When I am asked if I am smoking I reply, "Nope, I am vaping". If I care to talk more about it I tell them it is a vape stick and what they see is steam. When they ask, "Is there nicotine in it?" I ask them if there is caffeine in their coffee steam. So far, in the three years I have been using it in public I have never been asked to stop. I am usually rather discreet about it. Holding puffs in so that steam isn't engulfing me. I have vaped during council meetings and only had one incident were a staffer saw steam waft off me. Later, she told me that the councilmen had always said I was the spawn of the devil and she just thought she saw some brimsmoke finally escaping. LOL!

 

[twowings]

A coffee cup or coffee machine is not considered a drug delivery device. Don't know why a PV would be. However, they have a habit of making anything mean anything they want as long as it suits their purpose don't they.

So agree with this statement, CaptJR! A good analogy.

 

[Myk]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
You can change the name but it's still going to be a electronic cigarette simulation and therefore will get the same people saying the same thing about it.

I think when you try to pass it off as something else you are telling people you are trying to be dishonest. It is known as an e-cig, you can't unring that bell.
Blame the original marketing but without calling it an e-cig most smokers wouldn't have ever heard about it.

Like TennDave I say "electronics". That avoids the use of the knee-jerk reaction to "cigarette" and at least gets them to hear me out.

 

[Shining Wit]

Whenever anyone asks what it is, I tell them it's what saved my life and I direct them to my ongoing story, My Life My Choice, which charts the journey from me being a healthy 12 year old to being a 57 year old whose lungs are pretty shot.

John

 

[sailorman]

When asked by a hostile, I tell them it's a medical device and that quickly shuts them up.
I'm not lying to them. If addiction is a disease, it's a medical device.
Other people, I tell simply that it's what I use instead of smoking.
When pressed for a name, I'll either tell them it's a vaporizer or even an atomizer.
If they're friendly or interested, I'll tell them it's a nicotine vaporizer.
If they want to make the connection to that stupid marketing gimmick name e-cigarette, they'll do it on their own.
So far, no one has said, "Oh, you mean an electronic cigarette?"
If they do, I'll tell them no, it's not a cigarette, electronic or otherwise.
It's a vaporizer. Cigarettes burn, vaporizers vaporize. Vapor is vapor and smoke is smoke.
They both deliver nicotine, but that doesn't mean they're the same thing because they do it by entirely different means.
Both a bicycle and a motorcycle deliver a person to a destination on two wheels.
It's no more a cigarette than my bicycle is a motorcycle or a slingshot is a rifle.

 

[kingcobra]

Medical device, I love it I also like "stop smoking aid" and I can smoke instead if you like but that would kill us both

 

[TennDave]

"Oh, so you're trying to quit?"
"No, I'm trying to continue."

 

[Wickedwench]

I don't think the "e-cig" label is for those of us who have already switched to vaping; its for the smokers out there who have been convinced that giving up tobacco is nearly impossible. It makes a PV seem like a smaller, easier step.
We vapors haven't had time to resolve our vocabulary issues. I will always think of myself as a smoker because smoking was a part of my identity for 30 years. That identity hasn't changed just because I haven't had an analog in almost a year. I'm also very aware that if vape was taken away, I would go back to tobacco immediately. Not proud of it, but its true.
Give us and the forums time; we'll find a way to conduct ourselves and others.

 

[Xaiver]

The problem that the OP brings up is more of a double edged sword. I'd be willing to wager that the majority of people here heard about an e-cigarette through passive advertising somewhere. They discarded it, because they loved their ciggies. One day they woke up and said "I need to quit smoking...lets try that e-cigarette thing" Would they have remembered it, or even linked their desire to the device if it was called a MisterGizmo or a Vapythingie? I doubt it.

Whatever you choose to call your PV, is up to you. E-cigarette got us started, and it lead us to this lovely forum. Re-inventing the wheel now would just make us another snobby niché group, and the world has plenty of them that nobody wants to talk to.

As far as mods go, I don't have a whole lot to say. They're really just battery boxes for the most part, which is one of the main componants to an e-cig.

-X