BetterHealthReport.Org

Here's a riddle for you: what looks like a cigarette, smells like a cigarette, tastes like a cigarette, and feels like a cigarette? No, the answer is not: a cigarette. Instead, the answer is the key to what may be a revolution for smokers: the electronic cigarette. 

Finally, smokers can say goodbye to yellow teeth, bad breath, and expensive tobacco cigarettes - while enjoying their electronic cigarette almost anywhere.
It is not hard to hear about all the ways that smoking is injurious to personal health. The messages are delivered everywhere - from our doctors, schools, media and even on cigarette packages themselves.  However, nearly one out of five Americans still smokes tobacco cigarettes.

Enter the electronic cigarette, a battery powered device that is controlled by an advanced microprocessor that provides smokers with the same nicotine they get from tobacco cigarettes.  Smokers may be a bit shocked when they first see an electronic cigarette.  It looks like a cigarette, and electronic cigarette smokers puff on it exactly like a tobacco cigarette, however because it does not burn any tobacco or other harmful chemicals found in tobacco cigarettes - it can be smoked almost anywhere.

 Electronic cigarettes at a glance:

• No tar, tobacco, carbon monoxide, or ash is burned
• No worries about harmful secondhand smoke, bad odors, or yellow teeth.
• Smoke indoors and almost anywhere!  No more running out in the rain, snow or cold weather
• Considerably less expensive than tobacco cigarettes - save up to 80%
• Choose from a variety of different flavors and nicotine strengths

So what's missing from these electronic cigarettes that are in regular cigarettes? For starters, the dozens of carcinogens and hundreds of chemicals found in traditional cigarettes are not present in electronic cigarettes. There is also no tobacco, no tar, and no ash. This means not only is the smoker dodging these harmful substances, but so are all others exposed to harmful secondhand smoke from the "old kind" of cigarette. 

Since there is nothing to light, you don't need to carry around matches or lighters.  In addition, because there is no flame, there is no ash which is the source of most lingering smells.  The electronic cigarette removes many of the negative issues related to smoking tobacco cigarettes, while giving users the familiar smoking experience.

Another big difference is cost.....

One of the major benefits of electronic cigarettes over conventional cigarettes is the large cost savings can be gained by switching.  The chart below compares the cost of smoking tobacco cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, over a time period of one year, assuming you smoke a pack a day, and a pack costs $5:

As you can see above, switching to electronic cigarettes can save a smoker over $1400 per year, or $116 per month.   Of course your savings will vary depending on how much you smoke and what state you live in - however most US residents will see substantial savings by switching their smoking habits to electronic cigarettes. 

Smokers save money by using electronic cigarettes because the reusable nicotine cartridges, which are equivalent to a little bit more than one pack of tobacco cigarettes, cost somewhere around $2 per cartridge.

How does the electronic cigarette work?

The electronic cigarette has 3 main components.  The first is a rechargeable battery, similar to they type you may find in a cell phone or laptop.  The second is an atomizer which vaporizes the contents of the cartridge.  The third part is the cartridge itself, which holds the nicotine solution.  A cartridge usually holds to an equivalent of between 1 - 1.5  packs of cigarettes, and can easily be changed when empty.

When you inhale on the electronic cigarette, the atomizer and battery will automatically turn on.  However, because you are mostly inhaling nicotine, water vapor, and flavoring compounds - you are not inhaling the other 4000+ harmful cancer causing substances contained in tobacco cigarettes.  Nicotine by itself, which is also used in various patches and gums, has never been proven to cause cancer. 

When you exhale, the mostly odorless smoke is made up of mostly water vapor, which looks very similar to tobacco cigarette smoke.  This vapor disappears quickly and is mostly odorless.

Smokers Love Their New Freedom...

A recent media story described the experience of one Illinois man, Scott Riddle, who had recently switched to electronic cigarettes:

"Riddle, a public safety dispatcher who lives in Schaumburg, was a pack-a-day smoker for 12 years before he tried an electronic cigarette this June. Riddle had tried a nicotine patch, and nicotine gum, which he called "disgusting," but nothing simulated the habit of smoking like an electronic cigarette.

The day he started using electronic cigarettes was the last day he smoked an "analog" cigarette, as old-fashioned smokes are called. "It replaces my need for a cigarette," he said. Now he can use it around friends, in their homes, and in bars or restaurants, because there's not that smoky smell. "

The article went on to say:

"People in public, including bar and restaurant workers, ask him what it is, and when he explains it, he says they have no problem with it and often want to try it or see if it could help someone they know...

Riddle says he feels much healthier.  "My lung capacity has increased tremendously," he said. "I'm able to taste foods better now, and can smell better now."  (Daily Herald, 10/12/2009)"

The Electronic Cigarette Featured In The Media:

"Now I do the electronic cigarette"

The electronic cigarette was named one of the top 10 health trends of 2009 by the Doctor's TV Show.

National Media:

"We hear reports that people are smoking these electronic cigarettes in many areas that smoking is not allowed."