I know this is an old thread, but thought you might appreciate the perspective of a long term ecig user. I can honestly say that ecigs have saved my life (and the lives of many friends). I have been vaping for 10+ years. Before that I was a pack to pack-and-a-half a day smoker for 20+ years. And it was really starting to take a serious toll on my health. I attempted quitting several times with little success. Had I not discovered ecigs, I’m pretty confident I would still be smoking today. Fortunately, one evening I ran into someone standing outside a bar that was nice enough to let me try their vape, which wasn’t very common at the time. It was menthol, which was kind of gross, but I immediately saw the potential, and bought my first device, and some nic flavored juice. Back in those days devices were little more than pen vapes - with terrible vape delivery, very little in the way of safety, and complicated. Despite the terrible flavors, and the learning curve, and the shitty devices, I took to it immediately, and naturally switched completely away from analog cigs within 2 or 3 weeks. Within a month my sense of smell and taste returned. I stopped feeling winded walking up a simple flight of stairs. My house and clothes didn’t reek of smoke anymore — something which I hadn’t even noticed before! And it has just gotten better since then. Today, despite the fact that, if I’m awake, I either have an ecig in my hand or within easy reach, I feel very healthy. Complete life transformation.
With the shitty delivery of devices in the early days, and my body over-compensating for effects, I was vaping probably 18 to 24mg juice during the transition. But as I got more used to it, and devices improved, I reduced my nicotine to 3mg which is where I’m at today. This gradual reduction in nicotine is something you could never do with cigs. Today devices are really good, very safe, and the industry does a pretty good job self-regulating (out of, among other things, fear for its survival).
I’m very health conscious, and go so far as to build my own coils (quality wire, organic Japanese cotton), and mix my own juice (propolyne glycol, veg glycerin, pharmaceutical grade nic, and high quality flavoring ‘Fuji apple’
— partially for financial reasons (e.g. $60 vs $3 for 120ml bottle of juice), partially for health reasons, and partially to get the exact strength/flavor that I enjoy. And this is not uncommon within the vaping community.
I have also followed the vape health news fairly closely, and have been very conscious about any health concerns and studies. For the most part the overwhelming health consensus around the world is pretty unanimous. Ecigs are not ‘healthy’ for you, but are way way healthier than smoking - and I would go further and say by a factor of about a 1000. I personally feel like ecigs are on the scale of drinking coffee — not great for you, if done in excess, but will likely not do any permanent damage. Just chill out if you are doing too much, and the effects will quickly leave your system. Unlike smoking which is doing cumulative, long-lasting, and potentially life-threatening damage to your system. I can’t say, that if I overdo it during the day, that I might not feel a little tightness in the chest — but it quickly dissipates, and by morning I feel totally fine. Something that I could never say with analog cigs.
Regarding the heath scare over the last few years with people ending up in the hospital with lung conditions. First let me say this is tragic. But I don’t believe it was caused by vaping ecigs at all. As far as I was able to parse out of the ongoing news, it happened mostly amongst teenagers in states where cannibis is illegal. And instead of admitting to their doctors and parents that they were smoking an illegal substance they said they were ‘vaping’, which was technical true — but they failed to admit what they were vaping (or what else they were vaping). Apparently, some brilliant fucking idiots on the black market decided that they would use vitamin-e as a base for their cannabis oil cartridges, because “if it’s good to ingest, then it must be good to inhale”, right? This sadly sent many people to the emergency room. And the news was jumped on by the anti-smoking groups and produced “scare headlines” to throw everyone into a panic. The biggest evidence for this is the fact that vaping had been around for years with exactly zero incidents (apart from the occasional exploding battery), and then all of a sudden you have all these teens ending up in the hospital with serious lung issues and even death over a very short period, and then just as quickly, it all stops. This did huge damage to the vaping community (both cannabis and nicotine), and to spreading the real benefits of vaping vs combustion.
Since then many cities have banned flavorings, and San Francisco has gone as far as to ban the sale of vaping devices (even online). I now have to get my devices delivered to friends in Oakland! Wtf?! As a result, San Francisco is seeing the first rise in smoking rates amongst teens in years. Very sad. I don’t recommend any teenager take up vaping, but teenagers are going to do what teenagers do, and should have the healthiest option available to do it. Meanwhile, it’s fine to roll up a joint, which is probably 10x worse (from a lung-health perspective) than smoking. Go figure.
Happy vaping
