ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES

Electronic cigarettes are quickly becoming a popular replacement for traditional cigarettes.  Many smokers have ditched their cigarettes and are using this new alternative method to get nicotine into their system.  As of right now, the FDA has not acted to promote electronic cigarettes as a healthy alternative to smoking.

I was involved in the initial launch of electronic cigarettes into North America back in 2007 so I fancy myself as a bit of an expert on the subject.   I remember the first time I set eyes on these devices I thought that it would revolutionize the world and put an end to filthy smoke filled rooms forever. 

The question that everyone asks is are electronic cigarettes really safe.  I can't tell you that they are completely safe,  because there has not been enough study done on the long term effects, but I can say that it is hard to argue that they are much safer than traditional cigarettes.

Traditional cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals in addition to the tobacco.  Many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, yet they continue to be key ingredients.  I won't list all of the 4000 but here are some of the items that you may not be aware are in those cigarettes you are smoking.

Traditional Cigarettes contain:

Carbon Monoxide - that's the stuff that comes out of your car exhaust
Tar - the stuff that those roads your driving your car on are made out of
Ammonia - cleaning agent
Acetone - same stuff you take your nail polish off with
Butane - the stuff in lighter fluid
Freon - works great to make your airconditioning cold, probably not a good thing to inhale
Cyanide - deadly poison but yet it makes its way into your cigarette
Arsenic - that's right, poison used to kill rats and other vermen.  Maybe you someday
Cadium - the stuff in batteries

The list goes on but you get the point.  Some of these items are naturally found in tobacco, others are added by our friends at the tobacco companies to enhance the speed and amount of nicotine absorbed into your body.

In contrast, most electronic cigarettes only contain a handful of chemicals.  Electronic cigarette manufacturers all use the same basic ingredients with a few exceptions.  The process by which the electronic cigarettes work is by using a battery which ignites a heating element when you inhale and creates a water based vapor mist with a nicotine based liquid. 

In the early days of manufacturing electronic cigarettes, the quality control was questionable at best.  Much of the nicotine solution injected into the cartridges was done by hand using a syringe.  The amount of nicotine added to each electronic cigarette probably varied greatly.  Today the process has become much more automated and the electronic cigarettes have a more consistent nicotine level.

The main ingredients in most electronic cigarettes are listed below.   This is a complete list.  As you can see it is considerably smaller than the list of items in traditional cigarettes.

Water
Nicotine
Propylene Glycol
Ethanol
Glycerol
Acetylpyrazine
Gualacol
Myosmine
Cotinine
Vaniilin

Electronic cigarettes can be found in varying amounts of nicotine from zero nicotine up to 3% nicotine.  Check out how much nicotine each brand of electronic cigarettes contains http://ecigfacts.blogspot.com/

If you truly want to quit smoking, if you want  to end your addiction to nicotine, if you want ot free yourself from a life of slavery, then electronic cigarettes will not help you.  This is just another method of injecting nicotine into your body.  While it may be cleaner, it may be safer, and it may even be cheaper than traditional cigarettes, it still produces the same result, an addiction to nicotine.

I wanted to bring out this information about electronic cigarettes, because as smokers we are always looking for the next trick that will help us quit.  At the end of the day, most every smoker wants to quit smoking.  Many of you  have tried the patch, lozenge, gum, etc. as a means to quit.  Most of you found this doesn't work because it just places the drug you are trying to quit back into your system.  Nicotine does one thing, it makes you crave more nicotine.

I've said in previous articles that using the no nicotine cartridges on electronic cigarettes would be the only way that I would promote using this product to quit smoking.   You will quickly find that you get no satisfaction from smoking a no nicotine cigarette, you only remind yourself of smoking when you  imitate smoking a real cigarette. 

Remember, it takes only 72 hours of nicotine abstinence to cleanse your system of nicotine.  Once you make it through those 72 hours you will no longer be physically addicted to this drug.  If you want to quit smoking, then put down the cigarettes, pat yourself on the back for making this decision, and enjoy your new life of better health, more money and total control of your actions.  No longer will a drug be making decisions for you.

Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking.  Every day I receive comments on success stories of people quitting and thanking me for providing these articles.  Keep them coming, I love to hear from those of you that have escaped this evil addiciton.