First off – here are the facts. We all know them but it never hurts to see them again (I, by the way, am a confirmed smoker who is about as likely to quit as the moon is to be made of green cheese): an electric cigarette doesn’t give you cancer and it won’t make you smell. Electronic cigarettes, unlike tobacco, have very few additives in, and all of them are fit for human consumption. Tobacco contains around 4,000 extra bits (depending on the brand you smoke), a significant quantity of which will do you some harm in some way before you die. Some of them may even make you die.
So health wise, the electric cigarette wins by miles. For a confirmed smoker like me, who needs nicotine in large doses and will not have it delivered in any other way but via a long white tube I get to suck hot smoke out of, electronic cigarettes work because I can do exactly that without dying. Sounds like what our friends across the pond would call a no brainer.
But what if I don’t care about dying? Ultimately any heavy smoker will tell you that there’s a component to nicotine addiction that is specifically about the fact that it is both stupid and dangerous. We like the fact that cigarettes are going to kill us. We call them coffin nails or cancer sticks. We joke about the fact that not using an electric cigarette will be the death of us. We light up a tobacco stick and feel like rock n roll, or James Dean.
How do electronic cigarettes fight that kind of stupidity? If I know that what I am doing is killing me and I go right ahead and do it, what are you going to do to make me sit up and take notice of something that is basically the same as smoking, but a whole lot less lethal?
Cost, that’s how. The universal leveller. I don’t care how bad cigarettes are for me but I do care how much they cost. So if I can get the same hit in pretty much the same way for less money, I’m interested.
The cost benefit analysis someone like me does on electronic cigarettes goes like this: how long does the electric cigarette cartridge last; how much does it cost; and how much am I saving if I switch the electric version and ditch the tobacco?
The e cigarette is basically a vaporiser, which shoots hot nicotine vapour into your lungs. Just like a cigarette. The vapour comes from an E liquid cartridge, which you can buy in varying strengths and flavours. Just like cigarettes.
The e cartridge, though, delivers enough nicotine to compare to 40 of my normal brand cigarettes. That’s the same as two days’ worth of smoking, in one electric cigarette.
Electronic cigarettes are sold in starter packs, which give me everything I need: the battery; the vaporiser; battery chargers; and some e liquid cartridges. The cartridges are also sold separately, as refills. The price of a starter kit can range between (roughly) sub £30 and upwards of £80.
Pay more, get better quality. And still, after a year of using electronic cigarettes instead of tobacco, you save a ton of money. After two years you could probably go on quite a nice holiday with the money you haven’t spent on cancer sticks. To quit or not to quit? Not to quit nicotine, but yes to quit tobacco in favour of the electric cigarette.
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Similar with my CC post last week, I still share horses that draw buggies this week. In my husband's home town (Bumiayu, Central Java, Indonesia), all of people who have horses and buggies come from one village nearby.
