My e-Cigarette Experiences…

Posts Tagged ‘tobacco’

A well written letter, and one that I agree with fully:

http://cagecanada.blogspot.com/2009/05/e-cigarettes-letter-to-health-canada.html

Also, be sure to read the follow-up correspondence found here:

http://cagecanada.blogspot.com/2009/07/correspondence-with-health-canada-on-e.html

njw

Yes…  over 100 hours have passed now since my last analog!  I’ve dealt with excess heat, family driving me insane, work issues and a few other matters of somewhat higher than normal stress levels, and still I don’t even feel like I need a cigarette.  So do e-cigs work?  MOST DEFINITELY YES!  I’m quite sure that since Friday noon when I started with m E8 I would have burned about $45, and I’m only down 7 cartridges in 4 1/2 days.  And this first few days have been a little better stress test than would be normal for me, so I’m pretty sure that 10 of these cartridges will last me around a week.  So that’s 8 packs (40 cartridges) per month at a total cost of around $60 – or about a week’s worth of tobacco!  Net expected savings – try $180+ per month – or more than $2,000 per year.  Not bad!

The one area that I’m finding the E8 weak is the flavouring.  I have to admit that I don’t really get the flavours at all.  I can’t tell you if I’m smoking menthol, cherry or flu-cured most of the time, as they all taste somewhat the same.  There’s a hint of tobacco taste in each cartridge, and they are all a little sweeter than I’m accustomed to, so it’s really hard to tell the difference.  Mind you, I’ve been working on the samples that were not labeled, and on a few of the ones in boxes but I may also have mixed them up during use.  So I have to pay more attention to which ones I’m actually using for a few days to see if I can get the flavours down.  But still…  cherry should be an easy one?!  There have been some times when puffing on a cherry cartridge that I’ve gotten a hint of that old Cherry Cavendish I used to smoke in my pipe so long ago.  Maybe the nicotine strength has some play in that part as well…  Still some learning to do, and I will of course share my education with you all here.

That’s all for now… I need to get out of my hotbox office (we hit 35 C today!) and into something cool – like a beer or 3!

G’night!

It’s been 54 hours since my last tobacco (analog) cigarette…  and I feel GREAT!  There’s been no battles or cravings.  Even the morning kick start has been easier than with any other form of nicotine replacement I’ve tried to date.  This morning I awoke for the second morning to take a few puffs off my E8 from e-cig.com and find that it is just as effective as that first smoke in the morning to start the engine and kick down that first morning craving.  And the best part is that I don’t have to go out onto the back deck to have that first hit.   I start the coffee, fire up my web and email software in the office and I’m settled and ready before I finish receiving all the spam! 

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I have to admit that I am fully surprised.  I mean, I expected the e-cig to be a great idea, and was pretty sure that it could easily integrate into my life and my world, but I never expected it to be so easy.  It’s been 14 hours and more than 200 KMs of driving, along with a few beers at the end of the trip.  Normally, that would be about 30 analogs or about $15 worth of tobacco…  today I’m still on my first cartridge!  Seriously!  As I said earlier, I’m sure that this is HOW I smoke, taking small doses but doing so very often, which makes it appear that I am smoking 20 or more analogs a day, when I’m only actually consuming the equivalent of about 10 to 15 daily while wasting the rest.

More thoughts tomorrow as I start a new day – and day 2 of being analog free!

OK… so nearly six hours in and I’m still on my first battery and my first cartridge.  I’ve gone about my day fairly normally except for the fact that I’m not stopping all activities to have a smoke when I crave.  And in doing this I’m already learning something VERY interesting to me.  It seems that I crave a smoke often, but I don’t give myself time to finish the whole thing.   This afternoon, at the office, I felt a craving and I answered it by taking a drag of my e-cig.  Then a second.  Then I was ready to put it away and move on.  I’d have had to stop working – go outside and walk 50 yards from the building, in the back, out of sight – then light up.  Pull a few hard drags off the analog and then snuff out 1/2 of the smoke and dash back into the office.  Even hastier and more wasteful on ugly weather days.  So I think I might actually end up saving even MORE than I had thought.  I’m nearly 6 hours into my vaping experience – no cravings for an analog and still on the first charge and cart!  I wonder how long this first one will go?  So far… I’m 12 analogs into the day.  Stay tuned! 

(NOTE:  Updates will be staggered but quite interesting this weekend as I am at a family function that includes some drinking – so it will be a REAL test of the stamina of the e-cig hardware and cartridges.)

Have a great – tobacco free – weekend!

It’s arrived!  My package from e-cig.com actually arrived!  Those sleek little black batteries and the several boxes of assorted cartridges are all intact and safe in their cute little case.  So far, and it’s only been an hour or so, I’m excited!  I’m getting good vapor and the included sample cartridges have a nice flavor.  Takes a few puffs to get used to it since I’m accustomed to menthol, but I actually find it slightly reminiscent of my duMaurier days.  So the journey is finally underway – and I will be keeping you all posted as I try and learn and experience the changes between smoking and vaping.  Oh… and if there are any local readers that smoke Number 7 Menthol, I just this morning bought a pack that I don’t think I’ll be needing, and the store won’t take them back (and it was only 1/2 hour!).

So my first thoughts…  I have one beef right away.  The kit comes with a short and long battery, and with the long battery attached the unit won’t fit in the little case they shipped it with.  Minor pain.  And the writing on the cartridge boxes that tells you the flavour is TINY!  So out came the sharpie and I’ve marked them so I know which box is which.

I was able to draw a few puffs right out of the box so far, and I’m actually even more impressed than I thought I might be.  They really do emulate a smoke well.  These are the e-cig.com E8 product, which features the disposable atomizer built right into the cartridge, so each new cartridge and flavour is also a new atomizer.  Nice if you like to switch around from menthol, to plain, to flu cured, to cherry (the mix I have for this order) and even nicer in that you don’t need to worry about having an atomizer fail while you’re waiting for a replacement to arrive in shipping.  I was planning to have 3 on hand just to make sure I didn’t suddenly find myself running to the store for analogs.

It’s way to early yet to say a lot more about these, but I will be tracking the life and use of the E8, as well as my desire for a smoke and will be certain to keep everyone posted.  I’m actually… for the first time in a very LONG time, having a puff while sitting at my computer!  Fun!

Cheers all!

Happy Vaping!

njw

Head on over to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-life-saving-electronic-cigarettes-available and get your name on the growing list of signatures on this petition.  We’ve already seen that Health Canada respond to the actions and positions of the US FDA, so perhaps, if we can nudge one of these agencies to change their view, we can see others take note and follow suit.  I’m signature #11,799 on the list, and hope to see it hit a much larger number in the next few weeks!

Get on board to save e-cigs and more!

and still I’m a smoker.  It’s not for lack of trying.  But now I know that I can’t buy from Blu any time in the near future, as they are no longer able to ship into Canada.  And it appears that this will be increasingly true of vendors in the US – and likely other vendors as well.  But I don’t want to get into the whole Health Canada thing right now…  I’ve got a lot more to say on that one later.

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I was advised earlier today, and have just confirmed it, that the Blu e-cig products are no longer being shipped to Canada.  So…  after a three week wait (and if you’ve not noticed, they have extended their catch-up shutdown to August 1), and now this, it’s a REALLY good thing that I cancelled that order.  I’d have waited for more than a month and would just now be told that I can’t get the product, OR worse, I would have received my Blu kit and just found out that I couldn’t get more cartridges or parts from them.

Now… the question that remains is;  will I receive my other order?  Or will the Government that feels that Tobacco is safer force me to be unable to receive ANY e-cig product?  I see SOOO much potential for improvement in my life and health and overall well being by changing from tobacco to e-cigs, and am being told that I can’t.  Starting to smoke was my choice – EVEN WHEN WE WERE BEING TOLD IT WAS DEADLY!  So why are these any different?  Come on Health Canada!  If you want to see Product Safety sheets and such, I can send you to the links – just drop me a line and I’ll be glad to share.

Meanwhile… I’m hoping for some good news soon.  Fingers crossed… as they’ve been for four weeks!

njw

And the WHO (World Health Organization) and the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and ANY other government funded and run health organization that is going to tell me the risks of using e-cigarettes.  Here’s the bottom line.  I CHOOSE TO SMOKE!  Yes, I’ve tried to quit many times and several different ways to prolong my health.  I KNOW THE RISKS!  You’ve spent billions making sure that we all do.  Yet there are over a BILLION people in the world that still smoke for one reason or another.

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