I saw a posting on here concerning the e-cig and what people think of it. Granted it sounds like a propoganda blog to get some sales so I figure I can give a first hand account of using them and their over all effects.
My wife and I were somewhere inbetween quits and were at our favorite low budget smoke shop and there is this guy who is in there peddling his snake oil I mean product. He asks us if we are allowed to smoke at our job. I tell him that this is not 1952 and no one is able to smoke at work we have to huddle in our cars like refugees so as to not be spurned or ran out of town by the non-smokers. (I was an angry smoker at the time. I wasn't angry at non-smokers I was envious and to self serving to admit it)
He goes on to tell me about the e-cig, how it uses water vapors to produce a "clean smoke" that is not harmless to others and allows us to get our nicotine. Now folks I have never bought ocean front property in Arizona, a suspension cable for the Brooklyn Bridge or bought sea monkeys off the back of a M.A.D. magazine. I did fall for his P.R. hook, line and wallet.
We get home and charge these things up. We are standing over the chargers like a heroin addict wating for his fix to melt. We finally get to start smoking on these things. At first it seemed to work and it gave me the feel I was smoking, but I knew in my addled brain I wasn't. I also noticed if you took too hard of a drag you got liquid in your mouth that made you want to vomit. My tounge actually got numb after that happened. I was going through filters and refills and the refill canisters loved to leak and the filter just never seemed to work right after refilling it.
Now you are probably saying to yourself, why would anyone keep using this product? Easy I am an addict and an idiot! I was putting up with all of that because I honestly thought I found a healthier way to smoke. There is an oxymoron in terms a healthier way to smoke. It is like saying a safer way to drive drunk.
So after about 2 months of using this product my wife and I became incredibly sick. I couldn't stop hacking. Not smokers cough. I was trying to dislodge something from my lungs. We go to the doctor and find out all that harmless vapor was turning into water in our lungs and we gave ourselves a case of pneumonia. I was pissed to say the least. The guy who sold this to us didn't return phone calls. I contacted the FDA and they said it wasn't a regulated product and there was nothing they could do it was all buyer beware!
So we chunked the e-cigs and went back to smoking our regular sticks of death. I learned there is no healthier way to smoke and their is no safer way to smoke. You either smoke or you don't. If anyone comes on to any site asking questions about the e-cig then they must be selling them because you can't google the item without reading every type of response out there. The one guarantee is that e-cigs are not a NRT, they are not a healthier alternative to smoking and they sure as Hell aren't any cheaper.
