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Sometimes, things come into your life that you’re not expecting. Like some 45 years ago, tobacco entered mine, and stayed with me … until seven weeks ago (as I write this in early July 2009) when the world of Electronic Smoking introduced itself.
Electronic Smoking (or “vaping” as it’s becoming known) removes all of the real reasons why folks would want to pack in smoking – the 400+ known carcinogens in traditional tobacco cigarettes – and leaves the nicotine and flavour.
With an E-cigarette, there is no passive smoking, no ash, no nasty smell lingering around, no “fag breath”, no need to slope off outside in the cold and wet in order to get your fix.
In other words, all the bad things go, and the good things stay – someone once put it to me –“it’s all the joys of smoking, with none of the death!”
So, when I first came across these little cylinders of nicotine-bearing joy, my first thought was “great – they beat the smoking ban, I can have a smoke in a pub, a club, a theatre, a shopping mall – anywhere, in fact” – which, of course you can – and I was going to continue to smoke traditional tobacco cigarettes.
Now, though, I’m over four weeks tobacco-free – I haven’t sparked a normal smoke up. Why? Because my Nucig tastes nicer, it’s cheaper (MUCH cheaper) than smokes in the UK, and, frankly, I quite like the notion that, in five years, I’ll have the same risk of lung cancer as a bloke my age who’s never smoked at all.
When first I came across electronic cigarettes, my first thought was that this was a device that would allow me to beat the smoking ban and enjoy a smoke in a pub or hotel or wherever else smoking was banned, without resorting to actually acting illegally (and risk whoever owned the place getting a nasty fine). My intention was to carry on smoking as normal, but have my Nucig handy for those occasions when it would be inconvenient to spark up a traditional tobacco cigarette.
And, indeed, that's pretty much how many people view vaping - using electronic cigarettes - as a means to get round the ban.
I've been to quite a few pubs and music venues since I took up my Nucig, and it has always attracted attention. I must admit that I tend to use a battery with either a green or blue LED tip, rather than a red one, at least until the management and everybody else has discovered what it is that dangles from my lips and appears to produce "smoke", and I've answered the many questions that get thrown at me.
Passive Smoking
Of course, Passive smoking would worry many - but that's another thing that these clever gadgets get past. That cloud of "smoke" is composed mostly of water vapour, with a small amount of nicotine in it. It condenses back into a teeny tiny amount of water very, very quickly, so there's no blue fug of smoke hanging around, and passive vaping is, as far as I can see, all but impossible. As a pleasant by-product, there's no nasty after-smell, either - no rooms smelling like the bottom of a hamster's cage in the morning.
Some folks have asked about the volume of "smoke" - will it cloud up a room? The answer is no, it won't. I've tried to get a fug going in the smallest room I've got (and it was easy with a normal cigarette), but the vapour, once exhaled, simply doesn't hang around - you just can't get a fug going, no matter how hard you try. Bad news for folks with lighting systems, great news for everybody else.
Stopping Smoking
I haven't. Well, I have. But I haven't. I haven't smoked a tobacco cigarette in over a month, that's true, but I haven't packed in smoking, either. I'm still to be found with what looks like a sleek, black ciggie (or a strange green-ended one), drawing deeply and enjoying everything I always have done with a smoke, but without the known cancer risks - as I see it, I've simply changed brand and cut out everything about cigarettes that made me uncomfortable - the effect on other folks, particularly non-smokers, the mouth like the bottom of a parrot's cage in the morning, the smell in my house, and, of course, the tar, carbon monoxide and all the other nasties in a normal ciggie.
So, although I'd never intended packing in the weed, it would seem I have - and there's been no wavering or willpower. I actually prefer vaping/e-smoking - prefer the flavour, get a better hit and I can vape anywhere.
It's all good.
