A reader submitted a link to this graphic history of e-cigarettes from Joyetech. We’ve come a long way since 1963. Hell, we’ve come a long way since 2004.
Joyetech"s History of the Electronic Cigarette
A reader submitted a link to this graphic history of e-cigarettes from Joyetech. We’ve come a long way since 1963. Hell, we’ve come a long way since 2004.
PennLive.com of Central Pennsylvania has placed a call out to vapers as they begin what they call a “lengthy project on e-cigarettes.”
“…We need your help. Do you use electronic cigarettes regularly? If so, we want to hear from you.”
Users of electronic cigarettes, even those who only use them occasionally, have been asked to email submissions@pennlive.com to help out with the project.
Do you use e-cigarettes? If so, we could use your help | PennLive.com.
“[Some vapers have] created hobbies out of rebuilding and customizing “mods,” metal tubes, similar to e-cigarettes, designed for “vaping” flavors and nicotine. By hacking these devices, they’re able to produce stronger flavors and — more importantly — create more impressive vapor clouds.”
There’s a great article on Mashable about the hacker ethic so pervasive in the vaping community, with users going hands-on to modify their vaping experience. It covers a wide range of topics, from vapers who create their own custom-flavored juices, to tweakers of rebuildable atomizers.
There are several inaccuracies scattered around the article that’ll be obvious to the more hard-core vapers among our readers, but it’s definitely interesting as an outsiders’ look into vaping’s “science-rooted” subculture: those of us who enjoy fiddling, rebuilding, customizing and fine-tuning our vapes.
Pimp My Vape: The Rise of E-Cigarette Hackers.
In another pro-ecig article from Forbes, Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Science and Health looks at how the superstitious fear of electronic cigarettes is being promoted by America’s big cities.
“Making e-cigs inaccessible for desperate smokers by inane restrictions will send this message: “Keep on smoking.” To those who say, “We just don’t know what might happen,” I respond, we sure do know what happens with the real ones: almost half a million dead American smokers every year.”
Ross is amazed that these places, where daily life is so completely based on technology and embracing the new, seem to be where all the baseless opposition to e-cigarettes is coming from. With Los Angeles, Chicago and New York all leading the charge to ban e-cigarettes, treating them exactly the same as tobacco, it is only in places like Wisconsin that we see governments making an effort to treat electronic cigarettes as what they are: a new product that has next to nothing in common with traditional cigarettes.
Ross takes oin all the arguments these cities have made: from claims that bans protect children, to the idea that electronic cigarettes are toxic, and counters them with facts and common sense, making the point that discouraging smokers from switching to electronic cigarettes could come at the cost of a great many deaths caused by smoking tobacco.
Big U.S. Cities Foment Baseless, Superstitious Fear Of Electronic Cigarettes | Forbes
Monday’s Chicago Tribune contained an editorial from “recovering nicotine addict” Clarence Page, who believes that governments are going too far in banning e-cigarette usage.
Page cites bodies such as Chicago’s city council which, like Los Angeles and New York, voted to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes in most indoor areas. These governments, says Page, most often cite the protection of children as their reason for passing laws against e-cigarettes. Exposing minors to e-cigarettes, they say, will get them hooked on nicotine, and could make them smokers.
“What next? Will government come after my nicotine gum and nonelectronic inhaler? If not, will there be a class-action suit by e-cigarette “vapers” claiming unlawful discrimination under the Constitution’s equal-protection clause?”
The problem with this logic, says Page, is that indoor bans in places like bars, where minors are not allowed, does nothing to further this cause, no matter how erroneous it might be. It’s a slippery slope, says Page, who worries that giving the government the ability to ban the use of a harmless device, even in places the children they say they’re trying to protect can’t enter, hand over far too much power over our lives. If nicotine vapor can be banned, how about nicotine gum and non-electronic nicotine inhalers?
Page, it should be noted, is not a vaper. Though he uses nicotine gum and a pharmaceutical inhaler as a former smoker, he has no loyalty to electronic cigarettes — he simply worries that we’re giving governments far too much control over our lives in allowing them to ban an activity that hasn’t been shown to harm anyone — not bystanders, and not even the vapers themselves.
Government going overboard in ban of e-cigarettes – Chicago Tribune.
In a somewhat unusual article in DigitalTrends, Andrew Couts, a vaper, argues that refraining from vaping around others is “the right thing to do,” and explains why there’s a vaping ban in place in his house.
“Why? Because e-cigarette vapor might not be safe, [my wife] Jennifer says. Do I want to expose her and the critters to potentially dangerous vapor? Don’t I love my family?”
Couts has obviously seen the arguments of both sides, and while he admits that “not a single study on e-cigarettes has thus far shown that e-cigarettes pose a health risk to direct users or second-hand bystanders,” he defends his wife’s decision not to allow the use of electronic cigarettes in his home.
While Couts doesn’t go as far as saying that there should be laws enforcing this separation of vapers and non-vapers, he believes it’s just too early to subject loved ones to his vapor as a matter of etiquette and respect.
Is it courtesy or just unfounded paranoia? Let us know what you think.
E-Cigarettes Are Banned … In My House – And That’s The Right Thing | Digital Trends.
A bill introduced Monday could ban the online sales of electronic cigarettes in California.
“There’s supposed to be age verification and notice. It’s not working. The next logical step is to simply ban sales through the Internet.”
–Roger Dickinson
AB1500, introduced by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) would prohibit direct sales of e-cigarettes over the Internet.
While Dickinson claims his bill is designed to protect minors from online retailers with inadequate age verification methods, he says forcing people to buy their electronic cigarettes from local brick-and-mortar retailers would net the state $24 million per year in revenue.
Online sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products would also be banned under the bill.
California Considers Banning Online Tobacco, E-Cigarette Sales | CBS Sacramento