
Switching to e-cigarettes could save 6.6M American smokers - mcone
https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-ecigarettes/switching-to-e-cigarettes-could-save-6-6-million-american-smokers-researchers-idINKCN1C72UJ
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alexanderstears
Our society's tendency to moralize or rationalize issues has made it tough to
talk about harm reduction.

Moralizers focus on the corrosive elements of addiction and rationalizers say
that e-cigs are still harmful but they miss the point that many people who
smoke e-cigs are better off than they would be if they used cigs to get their
nicotine.

E-cigs offer a better path to cessation through better control of the nicotine
concentrations than cigs do, and e-cigs are probably one of the least harmful
ways to get nicotine (and they're certainly cheaper than gum and patches).

I was very disappointed that the Obama administration tried to apply such
heavy-handed regulations to the industry, it has its place and I think we'd be
better off tolerating e-cigs. Give people an alternative to caffeine.

I think most productive people are dependent on some stimulant or at least
most people find their productivity is enhanced through stimulation. Whether
it's coffee, nicotine, or amphetamine, we should be honest about why people
use it and focus on access that doesn't cause undue suffering.

~~~
tlb
I didn't think the regulations were heavy-handed. Such devices should be
tested and certified to make sure they aren't, for example, leaching heavy
metals into the liquid and vaporizing it. Devices sold with cadmium-plated
heating coils or lead solder joints could easily poison millions of people, so
I think it's reasonable to require safety testing.

~~~
j0rd
I personally think ecigs are an interesting experiment in free markets.

A bunch of like minded people who had a habbit which was the leading cause of
preventable death coming together to figure out a way to kill themselves less.

Have there been things in the industry which were poisonous and could kill you
over the course of it's history. Yes. Lots. Have those been slowly fased out
as concerned consumers voice opinions, yes. Ni200 wire is a good example.
Battery mooch is another.

The lack of regulation has certainly led to it being more dangerous for
uninformed consumers, but it has also lead to lots of independent
entrepreneurs innovating fast in the space.

Personally I see it as a great example of free markets vs. regulation. I also
think it's only been able to exist because it's in a market which of its own
is hazardous to health.

Also this entire industry as I understand it came from China.

~~~
craftyguy
So your argument is that because e-cig users are coming from one harmful
product, that we should do nothing to prevent the new product from causing
undue harm, and that eventually (decades?) e-cigs will become safer because
someone (who?) will eventually phase out the harmful ones?

Why not stop wasting time and lives, and prevent the harmful ones from being
produced/released?

~~~
j0rd
Because it stops innovation.

Ni200 which is a pure nickel wire was invented for temperature control.
Required a specific device and chip to use as it has almost 0 resistance. Some
stupid uneducated people or vendors sold it and and used it in non temperature
controlled devices and poisoined themselves (not fatally), or blew up their
batteries on non-regulated devices.

I just started vaping last month, and while I bought some kanthal wire, I also
bought some ni200 and Titanium wire, which is dangerous if not used correctly.
I personally didn't know, but also didn't use it until I looked it up.

With that said, ni200 wire did invent temperature control, which is a method
of vaping these days.

~~~
snuxoll
316L stainless steel is a much safer option than Ni200 or titanium wire, shame
it's not more commonly used (Kangertech sells 316L coils, but they're awfully
hard to find compared to the Ni200 ones).

~~~
j0rd
Personally use SS316L now. Hard to find though.

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j0rd
I quit smoking a while ago for 4 months using a vape, then Thailand's military
junta banned them and most shops closed.

It's been a couple years now and tonnes of online shops started to sell and
I'd see lots of local vapers while having coffee, so decided to give that a
go.

It's been a month since I've had a cigarette now since I've started vaping.
Energy is up and sense of smell is coming back. Used to smoke a pack a day.

I do run the risk of deportation, jail or heavy fines/bribes if caught with
the thing, but I feel it's worth it for health reasons.

Also gov just increased tax from 130THB a pack to 150THB a pack.

~~~
gertef
Vaping is illegal, but cigarettes are legal? Vaping is illegal, but also
taxed?

~~~
excalibur
Surely the taxes refer to cigarettes. Vaping equipment is sold in a variety of
ways, but none of them are by the "pack".

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dsschnau
vaping definitely isn't healthy but it doesn't take much time vaping to
determine that it's less bad for you than smoking.

i still want to quit nicotine entirely one day but until that day comes, my
vape pen and i are good friends. 9 months ago i tried one out, and that same
day was the very last day i ever smoked a cigarette.

~~~
melq
Is vaping unhealthy because nicotine is inherently unhealthy or are there
other harms associated with vaping itself? Need to quit smoking cigarettes
myself.

~~~
grecy
Lean over an open fire and take a deep breath of the smoke.

I don't think it takes a huge leap to realize inhaling smoke is not good for
you.

~~~
infecto
I might be wrong but I thought the whole point of vaping was you are getting
the liquid/material hot enough for it to turn into vapor but not hot enough to
burn. Same principle with vaping weed. Sure its not "healthy" but its much
healthier than burning. I think your example is extremely wrong.

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Ascetik
I use nasal snuff, the least damaging and least intrusive form of tobacco use.

I vaped pretty hardcore for 3 or 4 years, it definitely has an effect on your
lungs, especially if you're into dual-coil sub-ohm builds and all that jazz.

Nasal snuff has been a God-send and is much more enjoyable, at least to me. I
still smoke a nice briar pipe with a few different pipe tobacco blends on
occasion, but nasal snuff has definitely curbed my tobacco/nicotine usage.

I could never go back to cigarettes and dip is just kind of gross, although I
think it's better than cigarettes.

~~~
josefresco
TIL ... about Nasal Snuff. Didn't even know this was a thing - do you get
weird looks in public?

~~~
j0rd
Called Snus. Banned in EU, but supposedly one of the healthiest nicotine
injestion methods. Most people would puke if they tried it :)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus)

~~~
jwilk
Non-mobile link:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus)

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vivekd
Ecigs have helped me quit smoking and they are the only thing that worked for
me. However, out of all the smokers I know, I only know one other person who
managed to quit smoking and stay quit with ecigs. The vast majority of people
I know who tried ecigs kept smoking and eventually gave them altogether in
favor of cigarettes

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loeg
The number is artificially inflated by multiplying by 10 years. It's 660,000
people a year, which is still a huge number.

~~~
randyrand
I'd rather they represented the number a extra days alive. "Switching to
vaping would bring XXXXXX more days of life to Americans".

If those 660,000 people were on average 95+ years old and would have died soon
later anyway, then "saving" their life has a much lesser meaning. Of course
this isn't the case, but the statistic is not very helpful as a measure.

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burntrelish1273
Yeah. I hate cigarette smoke with a passion but don't care if e-cigs puff all
they want because it has almost no odor and little/no noxious particles.
Therefore, it makes sense to tax the heck out of cigarettes and place them in
anti-marketing packaging, and perhaps subsidize (no sales tax/VAT) e-cigs.
Cigarettes are engineered to be as addictive as heroin, but Prohibition is
never a good solution, so the best compromise is something like e-cigs which
solves both harm-, litter and nuisance-reduction.

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mbroshi
For those looking, I believe the actual research article is here:

[http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2017/08/30/tobac...](http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2017/08/30/tobaccocontrol-2017-053759)

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g00gler
I was a pack a day smoker for quite a few years and a quality e cig finally
made my smoking habit much less compulsive.

I almost made the switch 2 years prior but I wasn't allowed to use it in my
private office so I figured what's the point?

Call it habit or whatever but I still can't get as much work done at home when
I'm not smoking so I consider it my weekend treat.

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Myrmornis
I was disappointed to see that the city I live in (Oakland) had banned the
sale of vaping materials and e-cigs, along with menthols and other flavored
tobacco products, to "protect the children". I know many people who have
stopped smoking real tobacco because of the introduction of gaping, so
Oakland's decision just seems ignorant to me.

------
randyrand
I wonder if this obsession with saving lives will end when we hit the maximum
human capacity of Earth, sometime in the next 1000 years. Though perhaps we
could be multi-solar-system by then.

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davidf18
e-cigs are not the answer: See FDA [1].

An intervention that has proved effective for saving lives from tobacco use is
MPOWER from the World Health Organization. Raise the cost of tobacco through
taxes, ban smoking in public places, hard-hitting, scary, anti-smoking ads,
doctors talking to their patients about quitting, nicotine replacement
therapy, telephone counseling support. In NYC the age for purchase is 21 as it
is nationwide for alcohol. In NYC, the minimum cost per pack is $13.

[1]
[https://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2016/08/protecting-...](https://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2016/08/protecting-
the-public-and-especially-kids-from-the-dangers-of-tobacco-products-including-
e-cigarettes-cigars-and-hookah-tobacco/)

~~~
refurb
_nicotine replacement therapy_

That's what e-cigs are.

------
joelhaasnoot
"Cold turkey is best way to quit smoking, study says"

[http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/15/health/quit-smoking-
cold-t...](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/15/health/quit-smoking-cold-
turkey/index.html)

Not convinced switching people to a just as addicting, just as nasty way of
killing themselves slowly is any better.

~~~
revelation
I sometimes feel like I'm in loony land with all the e-cigarette FUD. It
doesn't take a genius to realize that the cancer causing potential of smoking
lies primarily in inhaling smoke containing a large number of carcinogenic
combustion products. Vaporizers completely eliminate that; it's why "medical
marijuana" is a thing, they couldn't prescribe it when the side-effect is
cancer.

~~~
TeMPOraL
At this point I'm convinced that this e-cig FUD is a combination of
intentional misinformation and general population not being able to think
clearly about degrees of things. One would think that "a significantly less
harmful thing is better than a harmful thing" is a tautology, but apparently
it's not obvious to everyone.

~~~
j0rd
It would be better if I quit, but wasn't planning on doing that, so I switched
to vaping and haven't smoked since.

Best? No. Better? Probably.

One of the funny things with vaping is after two weeks smoking a cigarette
becomes disgusting.

I'd say it's also a lot easier to quit vaping than smoking cigarettes. So that
as well is a move in the correct direction.

