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E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

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Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#51
post #21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really any better than smoking? I believe nicotine itself is the carcinogen, correct? Not just the ash and other byproducts of burning...

Yes it's quite a lot better than smoking. Vaporization of juice is better on your lungs compared to inhaling smoke and tar. Less to get clogged. Nicotine itself has been shown to be significantly less addictive combared to Tobacco. Theories for this typically involve the fact that there's more than just nicotine in tobacco. There's a chemical in tobacco smoke, the name escapes me at the moment, that acts as an MAOI,…

Honestly saying that nicotine is far less addictive in e-cig rather than cig seems like a BIG BIG lie. At least speaking from experience.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#52

Why is vaping more popular than Nicotine gum, and Nicotine patches? A third party can't even tell their is anything special about your gum. So you would think it could be popular among high-school students and people on the air plane and the other situations that don't allow vapor clouds.

That's because Nicotine gum, and Nicotine patches are ridiculously expensive compared to vape. Believe me, I tried.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#53
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really any better than smoking? I believe nicotine itself is the carcinogen, correct? Not just the ash and other byproducts of burning...

No, nicotine is barely a carcinogen and is essentially on the same level as caffeine in terms of danger.

They said the same thing about cigarettes decades ago, proving it with “scientific” studies.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#55

I wonder how good it is for public health if Juul is able to grow this market. Do the health benefits from cigarette smokers switching to e-cigarettes offset the young people who never would have dreamt of smoking cigarettes heavily, but regularly use Juul? I had no idea how pervasive Juul was for college students until my sister told me that multiple people were "Juul-ing" in all of her classes. Highly recommend thi…

I was a heavy smoker, 2 packs a day, Juul was the only thing that helped me quit. Nothing else worked.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#56
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really any better than smoking? I believe nicotine itself is the carcinogen, correct? Not just the ash and other byproducts of burning...

No, nicotine is barely a carcinogen and is essentially on the same level as caffeine in terms of danger.

And when it's mixed with benzoic acid? (the 'salting' process mentionned)

From Bing:

Is benzoic acid a carcinogen?

It is considered safe only at less than a .1% concentration in a finished product (Source) When benzoic acid and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or citric acid are present, under the right conditions of heat and light, these two ingredients can combine to create the known carcinogen, benzene.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#57
post #38
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The virtue signaling was unnecessary, tbh.

Using the phrase “virtue signaling” seems to be a sort of “virtue signal”. Does it make you uncomfortable that someone would make a decision from a place of values and ethics? Or that they’d discuss it?

Cigarettes are "generally accepted non-virtuous behavior". Virtue signaling might mean doing something that anyone expects to be baseline "good person" behavior, but inappropriately advertising this fact. People tend to prefer to see virtue and identify it, much like people can safely refer to others as a genius but referring to themselves in that light suggests a lack of genius. Heaping praise on others for their virtuous actions is fine, where as attracting that praise in a form like this maybe not.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#58

For those who don't know, Juul is the inventor of the "salted nicotine" vaping trend which makes the nicotine spike much faster in the bloodstream than earlier vape juice, which is more like cigarettes. They have a patent but it appears to be ignored by the vape industry as "nicotine salts" are widely available (added benzoic acid). The nicotine level is also much higher, allowing for lower wattage devices and smalle…

Bing "benzoin acid carcinogen":

Is benzoic acid a carcinogen?

It is considered safe only at less than a .1% concentration in a finished product (Source) When benzoic acid and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or citric acid are present, under the right conditions of heat and light, these two ingredients can combine to create the known carcinogen, benzene.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think this technology is great if it can reduce the harm of smoking and get people off of cigarettes. I think this was the initial hope for e-cigs, but reality has turned out differently. These things are leading to a whole new generation of nicotine addicts at a time when smoking has fallen to all time lows in the US. Juul particularly is getting kids hooked that otherwise would have never touched tobacco, and t…

I'm not able to accept this without decent evidence. There's some pretty clear psychopharmacology related to burning tobacco that is absent for ecigs. Specifically one of the byproducts of burning tobacco is a compound related to early anti-depressants - a mono amine oxidase inhibitor. The effect of this compound seems to be to potentiate the addictiveness of nicotine. That is move its addictiveness from O(n) similar…

How many years of cigarettes smoking and vaping did you have? From what you write it seems to me that either you never smoked for years both of them or now you started vaping and you want to believe in what you write. Sadly the things that you write are extremely dangerous for all the young people that start vaping.

Re: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Labs Is Raising $1.2B

#60
post #32
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

e-cigs have been proclaimed as between 95 and 99% less harmful than smoking, by some health charities. If these figures are well grounded in evidence then... probably yes.

One thing that bugs me about ecigarettes is that the flavoring chemicals are totally untested. Vegetable glycerin is essentially harmless and is even used in asthma inhalers, and nicotine is way less harmful as well. However it's already been shown that certain flavoring agents like a particular butter flavoring are harmful ( https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/e-cigaret... ). I know a couple "juice" m…

Actually it recently was discovered that the metabolites of nicotine itself are a likely carcinogen, so not quite so harmless.
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