Archive for March, 2010

The start of week 4 in my switch from smoking cigarettes to the use of an electronic cigarette and I haven’t had an analog (regular cigarette) since last Monday so it is my first full week without smoking. Since I received my Joye510 from Heaven Gifts http://www.heaven-gifts.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=200&productname= I’ve been trying to retrain my brain to receive it’s nicotine fix from a personal vaporiser rather than combusting tobacco. The advantage of using a personal vaporiser or electronic cigarette, e-cig for short, is that rather than burning tobacco and inhaling the 4000 chemicals that are included in the combustion process I’m instead inhaling a vapour that consists of maybe 10 or 12 chemicals. Nothing is being burnt  in an e-cig so I’m essentially inhaling a mist of what is called E-juice or E-liquid. Electronic cigarettes consist of a battery, atomiser and cartridge (a place where the juice goes into). A small wick is joined to the atomiser to allow the juice to travel from the cartridge into the atomiser, where the liquid is heated producing the mist we inhale. Pretty simple and easy to use.

It is considered a safer alternative to smoking but has yet to be fully tested and vapers the world over are essentially  guinea pigs, myself included. Although it may seem foolish to risk using an untested device, it does seem that inhaling PG instead of Tar, Carbon Monoxide, Ammonia and the 3900 other chemicals is logically a safer proposition. Considering Propylene Glycol is a common additive to many foods and medicines, it seems reasonable that it is safe. Whether inhaling it continuously is safe is yet to be determined but the quantities we are talking about is anywhere between 1mL to 4mL a day. The only unknown is the flavourings but that is where the superiority of using  a PV comes into play. Rather than being stuck with a few brands of tobacco, which more or less, all taste the same, we now have multiple flavours to whet our palettes with. From tobacco to fruity mixes, sweet or bitter, the array of flavours to choose from is more than enough to keep everyone happy.

E-juice is a mixture of predominately Propylene Glycol, Nicotine and food flavourings. My growing collection of paraphernalia associated with my  e-cig is pictured above. The bottles in the picture are the E-juice and you can see my Joye510 Personal Vaporiser (PV) in the case and on top of the Oksmokey box as well.

The Oksmokey bottles with orange lids actually came this morning and include some Extra-High and Ultra-High nicotine strengths which translate to 30mg/mL and 38mg/mL juice respectively. The other bottles are HG (Heaven Gifts) 24mg juice. I was having trouble getting satisfaction from 24mg so I thought a few 38mg juice bottles wouldn’t go astray. I was right, the 38mg juice does satisfy my cravings for a longer period of time and works well when I’m at work when I can’t just whip out the 510 for a hit when I want, which is often 🙂

In my quest to refrain from smoking tobacco I’ve also imported some Swedish Snus and have been using portions of the stuff tucked under my lip – since Saturday anyway, when I got it.  Apparently it is considered 98% safer than smoking and in Sweden where it is manufactured, they have the lowest rates of cancer in the European Union. Smokers in Sweden have substituted combustion in favour of snus and as a result Sweden is a healthier place.

The only downside to all this is, because we live in Nanny state, I have to import all my smoking alternatives. Although electronic cigarettes or at least e-juice is illegal to sell in Australia, I have to rely on the tedious process of ordering and having to wait for shipments to arrive. Customs appear to allow it through for personal use but there is no telling how long it is before there is an outright ban where none of the components and liquid nicotine will be available. Snus is legal to import but there are heavy taxes if customs decide to inspect the parcel. Snus should be available to buy at Australian retailers like it is in America but we decided to make it illegal to seel back in the 90’s for some absurd reason.

It would a great loss to the health of smokers who have made the switch from combustion to vaping all because some do gooders believe it is in our best interests to either quit or die from smoking. Electronic cigarettes offer another alternative – vaping for nicotine. A better way for those unable or unwilling to quit. NRT is an option but is essentially no different to what an electronic cigarette achieves, except we may very well continue to vape instead of aiming to be rid of nicotine altogether. Maybe that infuriates the anti-smoking lobby but vaping does no harm to anyone except maybe the user – so it seems a little over the top to not make it available when cigarettes are and they are known to harm others and users alike. Makes no sense at all.