DISQUS

Jon Kinnear · 11 months ago

Oh my god, there is a stand for this at my local mall. And it's soooo annoying. They all think they're so cool standing there with a very obviously fake cig. The guy just looks so lame. And no one ever buys them

Phlow · 11 months ago

I love the "smoke it at the mall, the airport, at work, in restaurants," like any of those places aren't going to freak out if you start blowing fake smoke all over the place.

chris · 11 months ago

If it helps people give up on smoking the real thing then I'm all for it!

Doc · 11 months ago

Nicotine is very bad for you, in sufficient quantities it can definately kill you. But as a 'quit smoking" tool this is MAY have some use.... but why demo it at CES??

Dennis Box · 11 months ago

. I like the taste of a real cigarette and I seriously doubt this even comes close.

John A · 11 months ago

I'm not even going to look it up:: nicotine is a deadly poison ondeed. I read more than a decade ago that distilled, the nicotine of three cigarettes is sufficient to kil the average adult. And it has been used as a pesticide for generations.

Note - I smoke. But I do not want kids starting to smoke. Which, alas, means that even if politicians ever stop taxing a $1 pack at $6.50 (or more) my costs will keep going up.

UncleMidriff · 11 months ago

Phlow: E-cigarette users have had varying levels of success e-smoking in places that do not allow "analog" smoking. Some places tell them to quit it, saying that even though it's not real smoking, it might give other smokers the idea that it's ok to smoke real cigs in the bar, on the plane, etc. Other places tell them to quit it, learn that it's not actually a cigarette, and then are fine with it.

Doc: Why not demo it at CES? It's a nifty little electronic gizmo, so CES seems like the perfect place to demo it to me. I first learned about the whole e-cig thing from videos of them at CES 2008. I've only smoked one or two real cigarettes since.

Dennis: From what I've read, your complaint is one of the most common. But also fairly common is e-cig users coming to prefer the flavor of their e-cig to their once-beloved favorite cigarette brand, often claiming that after a few weeks on the e-cig exclusively, regular cigarettes taste like licking an ashtray. These aren't just casual social smokers saying this either; this is coming from long time, multi-pack per day smokers as well. Certainly though, smoking an e-cig is different from smoking the real things, and some people don't want to make the switch.

Nicotine is indeed extremely dangerous. Based on what I have read, letting a small amount of pure nicotine absorb into your skin can kill your ass, quick. However, the stuff is these cartridges, even the higher strength ones, is far from pure nicotine. And while smoking can certainly cause cancer, I've not found any studies saying that nicotine alone can cause cancer. It does seem to lead to hardening of the arteries (due in part to the fact that it can raise blood pressure, I think), and some studies indicate that it can speed up the growth of existing cancer (according to wikipedia).

So no, nicotine is not entirely harmless. But that's not the point. The point is that inhaling just nicotine is probably a lot safer than inhaling nicotine plus several other know carcinogens. It is worth mentioning here that you can get the cartridges for these e-cigs with zero nicotine, so you can use them to help you cope with the hand-to-mouth, oral fixation, "Oh lookit! I'm blowing smoke rings!" issues where other nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patches, etc.) fall severely short.

Also worth mentioning is that the idea that each e-cig cartridge equals about a pack of real cigarettes is an outright marketing lie. No e-cig user I've ever talked to has been able to get more than about 5-7 cigarette's worth of smoking out of a single cartridge. Luckily, you can find cartridges for much cheaper (about $1 each) than the $5 these jerks want to charge for them.

LB1764 · 11 months ago

you can have your e-cig with no nicotine too, not sure why some say some would be upset with e-cigs, just because they look like a smoke, they should be happy that it is not smoke, that is what they have always wanted right? less cancer, no secondhand smoke, no smell, no butts, sounds like a win\win for everyone to me

kalll · 7 months ago

So we can even "smoke" vitamins now? That's an interesting turn of things. Just how popular are these cigarettes now? I know they are a relatively new concept but how do people respond to that? I suppose no smoking signs don't include these cigarettes...