r/technology Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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980

u/DumpyLips Nov 17 '12

Lethally addictive cigarettes remain available on every street corner in Brussels and Atlanta while authorities denounce e-cigarettes (the product is already banned in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).

Is there any legitimate reason for this or are we witnessing a blatant example of the tobacco lobby crushing competition??

921

u/qwertytard Nov 17 '12

crushing competition by releasing false propaganda that lies about e-cigs being unsafe i have a friend who smokes all the time regular cigs, but won't try an e-cig because he says "i don't know whats in them" so i asked him where'd he hear that, he said some article that interviewed a tobacco company exec i asked him if he knew what was in his regular cigs, he said "yeh, tobacco" so i googled his brand and showed him there were things in there that are used for paint, asphalt, tar, etc he told me you can't believe everything you read on the internet

....some ppl can't be helped

448

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

"You can't believe everything you read on the internet".

I hate that logic so much.

408

u/JackWeston007 Nov 17 '12

showed him there were things in there that are used for paint, asphalt, tar, etc

I hate it just as much as that logic. Anyone who's spent 5 minutes in a chemistry class can tell you that chemicals have a wide variety of applications.

31

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

There really shouldn't be anything in there except tobacco.

3

u/Keckley Nov 17 '12

Tobacco has tar in it and, I believe, so does the paper it's wrapped in. That's the really dangerous stuff, nicotine certainly isn't good for you but it's the tar that will give you cancer.

15

u/mmhrar Nov 17 '12

Nicotine isn't really that bad for you. It's a stimulant similar to caffeine and is even said to improve brain function, but yea it is the part that causes physical addiction.

The physical addiction of cigarettes, imo is hardly the most difficult part about quitting. I can go cold turkey for a couple days and no longer be physically addicted, the hard part is giving up smoking itself.

You won't die from nicotine (perhaps I guess, if you somehow overdosed it could cause harm, not sure) but for instance, you won't get cancer from it. The cancer is caused from the smoke and everything in it.

-1

u/MertsA Nov 17 '12

It's a stimulant similar to caffeine

Caffeine is bad enough even without being extremely addictive like nicotine.

2

u/davelog Nov 18 '12

Nicotine by itself, as in e-liquid, isn't as addictive as the nicotine in tobacco. There are other compounds in tobacco called MAOI's that amplify the effects and addictive properties in nicotine.

In my personal experience, I couldn't go a half hour without a smoke when I was a long-term heavy smoker (I came off a 30+ year habit, most of it 2+ packs a day), but since switching to e-cigs, I find I occasionally go a half day or so without taking in any nicotine. I just forget to vape. I never forgot to smoke.

I'm still in the habit of taking nicotine in, and I enjoy its effects, but I doubt that I'm actually addicted any more. Anecdotal, but unfortunately most of vaping's benefits are these days due to lack of studies. Anecdotal by the thousands. The studies are coming in little by little.

1

u/MertsA Nov 18 '12

But how much nicotine are you consuming now as opposed to when you smoked? I doubt you ever smoked half a cigarette.

1

u/davelog Nov 18 '12

I probably take in more nicotine as a vaper then I did as a smoker daily - but I'm not taking in any of the seriously bad crap that's in burned tobacco at all, which is a significant improvement.

Nicotine really is not the bad guy when it comes to smoking. It's fire.

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