The E-Cigarette Industry, Waiting to Exhale

The first thing is that the level and effect of nicotine that is absorbed though vapor is a lot less than a regular cigarette. The reason for this is twofold: firstly, the lungs/mouth/throat seem to simply not pick up as much as in a cigarette, and secondly, cigarette smoke also contains MAOIs, which increase the sensitivity of the brain to nicotine's effects.

In addition, users can choose the level of nicotine that they use. Most e-cig users who are regular smokers tend to start at around 18mg/ml. When I first started, I was using this liquid in a 1.6ml tank. One tank worked out to about 1 pack of cigarettes worth of nicotine, and I got through about a tank a day: the same amount that I used to smoke in cigarettes, except spread out through a longer period of time.

Most vapers will puff way differently to cigarette users. We take one or two puffs at a time and then wait, while a cigarette user will smoke the whole thing quickly in one go.

Nicotine has been shown[1] to increase creativity in the brain, and I know from my own experience that I find it to be great while working. Most of my 'House' moments when tackling difficult coding problems have occurred on the curb with a cigarette in my mouth, and now I lean back at my desk and have a few puffs of fine-tasting menthol e-liquid.

[1] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/uoc--bcw08150...

The millions of people who have quit tobacco because of them, for one example.

> I don't care if it's just steam, I don't want it in my face.

On behalf of the decent people in the vaping community, I'm sorry that you have to put up with people like that. There's a big movement in the community at the moment to severely discourage people from using them in inappropriate places like restaurants or around people who are disturbed by it.

However, I think that this problem can be solved by awareness raising alone. It's too risky for the sake of public health to ban them in certain places or outright.

If you come across someone doing this and you don't like it, tell them that propylene glycol vapor irritates you and ask them to avoid making clouds. Holding in the vapor for more than 5 seconds usually means that none at all will be expelled when they exhale. This is what I, and many others, do if we ever vape on public transport etc., which I try to avoid anyway.

I get this, but usually there is some substantial benefit to the habit.

To start smoking cigarettes today, you are well aware of the fact that it will:

1. Make you less healthy while you are alive

2. Will prematurely end your life

3. Will make you reviled by a large portion of the population

4. Will cost you a ridiculous amount of money

5. Will cost you a tremendous amount of time while you seek out cigarettes and smoke them

... there are many more negatives.

What possible positives are there that outweigh these negatives?

Nicotine is no more addictive or harmful to a person in a normal dose than caffeine, and its effects are similar also.

This is just so incredibly ridiculous. I've never smoked a cigarette but I have been addicted to caffeine multiple times in my life. I've gone "cold turkey" several times and the only effect was a slight headache that was off and on for a week. I think it's actually pretty easy to quit caffeine but from what I hear, it's nearly impossible to quit smoking cigarettes.

And if the effects of caffeine are similar to the effects of nicotine why not just use caffeine? It seems to have few of the negatives and all the positives (including the social impact of smoking which can be transferred to the social impact of getting coffee).

I just don't get smoking at all. I don't see any benefits to it in a vein similar to I don't see a benefit of smacking myself in the head with a hammer. It's hard to explain away such things with, "Yeah, people aren't rational" because you don't see many people smacking themselves in the head with a hammer.