Like
thousands, maybe millions, of others, as a smoker, with all the media
hype on smoking over the years, I tried desperately to give-up this
unhealthy, antisocial addiction. I tried patches, pills, lozenges,
drops, drugs and hypnosis. All to no avail. The downfall of all
these cessation methods was the fact that I still wanted to smoke and
this behaviour was triggered by either seeing another person smoking,
and let's face it, you cannot escape it, or by the smell of burned
tobacco. Just the smell of a dirty ashtray even from a distance
could spur all kinds of emotions in me as an addict.
During
one of my final attempts, due to the fact I had tried everything, a
business opened up in the local shopping mall where I lived. I must
have past it a few hundred times before I was even tempted to give
their wares a try. They were marketing electronic cigarettes.
Something I had had no experience with, and to be honest, I thought
it was just another gimmick to exploit smokers who were, like myself,
desperate to give up smoking. At the time I was using 4mg nicotine
lozenges, and looking back now, they were useless because I needed to
chew them like they were sweets and I still wanted a cigarette. Just
like everything else I had tried so far, they did nothing towards
helping me to stop smoking, they just maintained my nicotine
addiction for a short time after which I wanted to have a cigarette
again. I felt then, and still do, that the available cessation aids
were more designed to generate revenue than to help the user get over
their addiction.
It
was of this mind that in July, 2012 I decided that I would gamble
twenty quid on these electronic-cigarettes and give it a try. So,
off I went to mall with my £20 in my hand, reluctant to part with
it, if I am to be honest. I thought that I would be regretting it as
soon as the novelty wore off. I had done a little research on
e-cigarettes online and asked relevant questions of the retailer who
gave me a sample few tokes of one they had for that purpose.
Although I could see how and they worked, as I explained to the
shop-keeper, it was not strong enough to satisfy my need. I was
informed that the one I had tried was a mild one and that a stronger
tobacco flavour was included in the starter-kit, which consisted of a
box which is identical to a standard 20-pack of cigarettes containing
a battery designed to look like the business end of a cigarette along
with two cartomizers, which
resembled the filter-tip of a cigarette, a USB charger and
instructions for use. The battery and the filter-tip end screwed
together, the tip is then heated by an electronic element which
turned nicotine liquid contained in the tip to turn into vapour for
inhalation.
Thus armed with my purchase, having been parted from my
twenty-pound note, off I went home to give it a thorough good
testing, which of course I did. And I was impressed. It really did
the job in taking away the nicotine craving, and it was instant
unlike the cessation aids I had tried previously, which took far too
long to get the nicotine into my bloodstream and to my brain.
According to the pack instructions each cartomizer had the equivalent
nicotine of 40 cigarettes. I would suggest that half of that would
be nearer the truth. I found that a single cartomizer tip would last
me over a 24-hour period and even at their full price would be by far
cheaper than buying tobacco cigarettes.
That was me in, and I bought 20 cartomizers for £30,
bought individually, a box normally retailed at ten pounds. This
meant I would be spending £2-a-day, as opposed to near to £8 for a
cheap pack of cigarettes. Buying them as I did, I save myself £10
and a days nicotine would cost me £1.50 which had to be good value
by comparison.
During
the first couple of months, I will admit that I did smoke the odd
cigarette. I think I did it for comparison more than anything else;
unlike with cessation products there was no nicotine rush
because I was not deprived of
nicotine and got no additional satisfaction from smoking the tobacco
based cigarette. I never smoked more than one cigarette and
certainly did not buy any. The benefits were instantly notable, both
financially and to health.
Out
of interest I got on google and did plenty of research, I mean here I
was a smoker most of my life, having tried everything there was to
stop without success and eventually coming across something that was
really working for me, and I wanted to know more. I discovered that
they were originally developed in China and that they had been used
for over a decade by those who got on to them early. I found out
that some tests had been done on health, but the only conclusive
statement made was that they were a whole lot better for than was
smoking cigarettes for their nicotine. Whereas cigarettes were in
effect the smoker lighting a little bonfire of dried leaves
containing thousands of deadly chemicals, tar and a small amount of
nicotine, vaping, as
inhaling nicotine vapour from an electronic-cigarette is commonly
known, only allows safe amounts of purified nicotine and whatever is
used to dilute it for it to turn into a vapour, usually propylene
glycol which is used in the
cosmetics industry as a penetration enhancer and rated as a moderate
health issue, it is found in things from toothpastes and soaps to
antiperspirants. If there is any risks to health from the use of
electronic-cigarettes then this is where it will come from not from
the nicotine. Nicotine is found in plants like potatoes, tomatoes
and eggplant, so to say it is a poison is not really as accurate a
description as some would like us to believe.
I soon discovered that the cartomizer tip could be
refilled and reused again and again as it turned out. I found this
out after I had bought a 50ml bottle of 54mg strength nicotine for
£15. As it turned out, this would bring the cost of my nicotine
habit down to 15p per day, a tenth of what I had been spending on the
cartomizer tips I started off with. If I chose to, I could 'smoke'
myself dizzy for this much. I could also choose the flavour of my
nicotine and there is a whole host to choose from. I have tried
liquorice, cappuccino, Red Bull, coffee, whisky, vodka and various
tobacco flavours. I found that flavours like liquorice tended to
stick to the heating element and became distasteful and cappuccino
was just too real, like milky sweet coffee and was a lot to get ones
head around. There are literally hundreds of flavours to choose
from.
After
around four months of using the electronic-cigarette, and after a lot
of thought, I decided to up the ante and get myself one of those
fancy Photon
Tanks which
are twice the price of the electronic-cigarette starter kit but, I
was told, had a longer lasting, more powerful battery resulting in a
better nicotine 'hit'.
The Photon Tank works on the same basis as the
electronic-cigarette in heating liquid nicotine and turning it into a
vapour for inhalation. The major difference being that the liquid
nicotine is held in a clear casing as opposed to the lint that holds
it in the cartomizer tips of the electronic-cigarette. The battery
of the Photon Tank is a little bulkier than the electronic-cigarette,
which is a little bigger than a real king-sized cigarette. It comes
in two parts which screw together and is operated by a button which
when depressed heats the element which turns the liquid to vapour. A
safety device is built-in which prevents the element from overheating
and burning out. Liquid is poured, very carefully into the clear
casing and once the mouth-piece is replaced the button is then
depressed while the mouth-piece is sucked like a cigarette. The
vapour is inhaled and this is done until the user is satiated
Now, if I was impressed by the electronic-cigarette, I
was doubly impressed by this little device, which made the
electronic-cigarette, not so much a waste of time, but I certainly
regret not going for the Photon Tank in the first place. I still use
the electronic-cigarette when I am charging my Photon Tank battery
up. The electronic-cigarette is OK for a short time, but it has
nothing on the Photon Tank and I find myself wishing it would hurry
and charge-up.
It has been six months now since I first started vaping
my nicotine, and but for the odd cigarette in the first month, I have
not looked back. I find it great that I no longer suffer a smokers
cough or shortness of breath. My sense of taste and smell are
greatly improved and I have not suffered any colds or flu I was once
susceptible to when I smoked tobacco.
Friends I once had, who smoked, are no longer my
friends. I found that their habit now offended me and I felt to
prevent argument, I should cut them out of my life and I did. So
acute is my sense of smell now that I can smell tobacco smoke in
passing cars now. Really.
With the advent of the electronic-cigarette I would say
that anybody who smokes cigarettes now is a fool to themselves when
there exists a safer and much cheaper method to satisfy a nicotine
addiction, one that does not make them a social pariah, or smell like
a dirty ashtray.
