While smoking an electronic cigarette did not manage to kill my tobacco craving, it did help help slow it. After two weeks of smoking exclusively electronically, I caved and bought an actual pack. I now use the electronic cigarette as a method of reducing my intake of paper cigarettes. And in that respect, the electronic cigarette has succeeded. I smoke less and waste less than I used to. I'm now down to a pack a week (half of what I used to use) and I'm going to continue attempting to reduce that amount. Hopefully one day, I can kick my tobacco habit completely.
I guess my ultimate conclusion comes down to this: Electronic cigarettes are not yet a suitable replacement for paper cigarettes. I think it's important to note that E-cigarettes still go unregulated in the USA. Their safety has not been evaluated by the FDA. And while the Electronic Cigarette Association consistently states that Electronic Cigarettes carry no carcinogens, until the FDA approves their safety, no one can really be sure as to what they're putting into their bodies.
This is what I know: As I stated in my first blog entry, smoking sucks. It's stupid and it's malignant, not only to the smoker, but also to the people around the smoker and to the environment. Smoking an electronic cigarette helped me smoke and waste less. It's an imprecise alternative, but in terms of other smoking alternatives I've tried (nicotine gum, patches, cold turkey), it's been more successful than all of them. The best way to reduce the effect smoking has on the environment is simply just not to start.
If you're interested in sampling an electronic cigarette, here's the link to the website I used:http://www.electroniccigarettesinc.com/.
Further reading on electronic cigarettes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/us/02cigarette.html
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ScienceResearch/UCM173250.pdf
http://www.ecassoc.org/
You can also e-mail me at: gucciar2@uwm.edu if you have any questions.
