As a freelance writer, I get asked to write about many topics – some mainstream, and some obscure. When asked to do a piece on E Cigarettes, then, I was totally stumped as I had never even heard of E Cigarettes before! Was it some sort of new video game kids are playing today, I thought? Obviously these are only fleeting initial thoughts, so the professional freelancer in me kicked in and I went about my research. And what I discovered was some remarkable information about a tobacco or real cigarette replacement device. For something I had never even heard of before, I was astounded that Google returned over 19,000,000 (yes, nineteen million!) results for the term “e cigarette”!
But cutting to the chase – what exactly is an E Cigarette? Well, I found out that it is a device that has been available for over four years now, and is a nifty little contraption that provides current smokers with an alternate, healthier option to conventional cigarettes. It has also been suggested that it assists in reducing smoking or indeed leading to people quitting smoking for good, but this statement is neither substantiated nor unsubstantiated.
The E Cigarettes or electronic cigarettes, as they are otherwise known, of today are apparently much more user friendly than their earlier incarnations. The main bone of contention with the earlier ones was the fact that they were too large to be used comfortably, therefore not endearing themselves to the public as perhaps the makers had hoped. Today, E Cigarettes can be purchased that are the same size as conventional cigarettes, therefore giving a much more believable experience for those who use them.
The devices consist of a battery, a nicotine chamber that can be fitted with replacement nicotine cartridges and an atomiser which creates the “smoke”, the smoke being vapour. The nicotine cartridges can come in various strengths which allows the user to decide when to reduce (or increase) the amount of nicotine they are inhaling, maybe even helping them wean themselves off the nicotine cravings usually associated with smoking. One nicotine cartridge is roughly the equivalent of smoking one packet of twenty real cigarettes, so this alone would create a huge saving on purchasing conventional cigarettes.
The main benefit of E Cigarettes, and also something I didn’t even think about until my research, was the fact that because these are electronic and don’t actually emit any harmful substances into the atmospheres (in fact, they are smokeless, only emitting vapour), they can legally be “smoked” in public places, unlike real tobacco products. And following on from this, non-smokers will not be subjected to all the known dangers of passive smoking either.
It therefore appears to me, that not only would these E Cigarettes benefit the users (health-wise), they are also more environmentally friendly, which is always a good thing. Upon concluding this article and armed with the great information I learned while writing it, I am now going to try and persuade my brother to give them a go – hopefully I can get him off the real things!