I read an outstanding article about the FDA’s quarrel with e cigarette manufacturers the other day and thought I would post it so visitors to this page could find it as its somewhat hidden from the view of most e cig smokers.

You can find the article on this blog about interesting news, entertainment and television. Unfortunately I can link to the specific article so you are going to have to search down the page until you find the one called “Recent Studies Indicate That the FDA May Contain Trace Elements of Bos Taurus Egesta”

If you haven’t heard, the FDA issued a quite incredible news release warning the poor unsuspecting public about the menace and danger posed to the health of America buy a wicked invention called electronic cigarettes. You can read the news release HERE, if you are interested in such things.

The FDA state that they discovered carcinogens in certain e cig samples such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze. The conveniently forgot to mention that Diethylene glycol is also used in toothpaste, mouthwash, cough syrup, wine and plenty of other consumer products that fill our shelves. Don’t hold your breath waiting for an FDA warning regarding the dangers of mouthwash to be appearing on an Internet page near you anytime soon.

Nitrosamines were another potential carcinogen they found in the sample and yet again this chemical is found in many products including beer, bacon, fish, pickles, some meats and cheeses. Its found in e cigarettes because the nicotine used is extracted from tobacco but you can be sure that the numbers are not something you should be worried about if you are using this device to stop poisoning your body with burning tobacco products. And if you think using an e cigarette if comparable to smoking in regards to the danger it poses to your health then you can keep your cigarettes.

There was no mention of the fact that these very same chemicals are found in FDA approved nicotine replacement therapy…interesting! As with most things with these agencies you only have to follow the money trail to see where the motivation for their vacuous words is coming from. The FDA is financed by big pharma and anything that threatens to take some of their millions will be shot down.

People are wakening up to the reality of the FDA’s bias and I think many will take this news with the pinch of salt it deserves. Artificial sweeteners, a proven neurotoxin, are approved, no worries there. But try and invent a product that can save the live of millions by helping them stop smoking and the FDA and its financiers are going to want to get their cut. It all about the money!

As they say, there is not such thing as bad publicity so maybe we will see electronic cigarettes rise in popularity due to the idiot ramblings of this retarded organization.

Edit :: Here is a direct link to the article about the Electronic Cigarette and the FDA.

The last post I made about the research regarding the possibility that nicotine replacement therapy might cause cancer or make it worse seemed to have brewed up a bit of a storm. I put the article up as I like to show both sides of the story in regards to these devices, nicotine is not a health product after all and its highly addictive properties mean that we would all do well to remove it from our lives if at all possible. How detrimental it is to our health may be open to some argument but at the end of the day we’re better of without in in our body for our physical and mental well being. If you don’t agree with that then there’s probably nothing I can say to change your mind.

I think the electronic cigarette is a great stop smoking aid and definitely the best nicotine replacement therapy available on the market but should we really be treating them as a long term substitute for smoking or a stepping stone to a drug free existence? I used the e cigarette along with the “easy way to stop smoking” book by Allen Carr to rid myself of nicotine and wholeheartedly recommend them to any smoker who wants to quit. But, my belief is that our aim should be to work on becoming nicotine free as possible.

Don’t get me wrong, swapping tobacco for vaporized nicotine is going to do wonders for your health if you are a long term smoker but cutting out nicotine entirely should be the next step.

What I have discovered is that a life that doesn’t revolve around a drug addiction is a happier, more content life. What’s natural about having a constant urge to supply your body with a chemical, whether natural or man made, at regular intervals throughout the day? To me there is something wrong with finding yourself on this amazing planet and being horrified that you have run out of nicotine, but this is the predicament smokers find themselves whenever they find their supplies diminishing. Cut out the addiction and you’ll be surprised how simple things become far more enjoyable and you’ll probably find that you become a more productive human being.

I know that many people who are still smoking or vaping are going to have a fit when they read this but I’m not writing with the intent of pissing people off, I just want convince as many people as possible that they can live a life without nicotine and the first step in doing so is realizing that whatever you think it adds to your life is an illusion.

There’s no doubt in my mind that E Cigarettes are miles ahead of tobacco products as a way to deliver nicotine to the system in terms of their effect on your health but is your aim to find a healthier way to be a drug addict or to free yourself from the shackles of addiction for good?

My advice is to get a hold of the “Easy way to stop smoking” book and an E cigarette if you need it as a way to get off the smokes. In time wean yourself off nicotine altogether and you’ll find life to be an altogether more enjoyable experience.

Read the article HERE

Read the article here.

The other, perhaps more important reason why the blog has gone to the dogs is that I’ve finally become totally nicotine free. I no longer smoke cigarettes and I’ve even punted my trusty e cigarette. How did this come about? Well to be honest, after a few months of puffing away on my electronic cigarette I had a moment of clarity where I came to the realisation that nicotine wasn’t adding anything to my life. Of course I had known for years that nicotine was doing nothing for me except keeping me smoking but at that moment I truly realised the reality of the habit. We don’t enjoy cigarette, they don’t taste good and they are not cool, the only reason we smoke is because we are addicted to nicotine!

I happened to be rereading Allen Carr’s “Easy Way To Stop Smoking” when I had my epiphany so I think that definitely helped things along. Anyway, the day after this took place my electronic cigarette was in the trash and I’ve been nicotine free ever since. This exciting episode happened a couple of months ago and I’m happy to say that in general I’m not missing my old friend one bit. The only time I’ve felt like picking up a cigarette has been when drinking, but considering I drink alcohol so rarely these days its not much of a problem.

I’m going to get this blog back up and running, filling it with information on how to quit smoking in the hope that it will motivate others to take the first steps to a nicotine free life. Its really not that hard when you get yourself in the right frame of mind and things are so much better when you life don’t revolve around cancer sticks.

Having said that, its looks like a number of pubs in the UK have decided the E Cigarette may be worth a shot. Perhaps with the effect of the indoor smoking ban and the credit crunch showing no sign of abating, the E cig is an easy way to entice customers back to the bar. Hopefully as the chill of the winter season starts to bite and more people start to grumble about the thought of stepping outside for a fly puff, pubs will realise that the E Cigarette will provide a welcome boost to their falling turnover. With a little luck the Electronic Cigarette may just become a common sight behind the bar, right next to the crisps and peanuts.

A Telegraph article on a pub selling the Electronic Cigarette behind the bar.

First of all, to the few E Cigarette sellers that this applies to, stop making claims that aren’t true! Any short term gains you make with cheap marketing tricks will be erased by the long term damage done to the E Cigarette industry. If you’re in this for the long haul doesn’t it make sense to play by the rules?

Secondly, if you’re an E Cigarette consumer, stay away from anyone making ridiculous claims about the health benefits of the E Cig. The truth is no one knows for sure just how safe these things are, and a company claiming that they are the answer to all your problem probably isn’t to be trusted. I for one am certain that the E Cig is a truly health giving product in comparison to the cancer sticks I used to smoke but everyone has to decide for themselves.

I’m always dubious about anything that comes out of the mouth of an international organization. Where exactly does the funding come from and what effect does this have on the neutrality of the information that they give out. When you take a closer look at the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative program you see that it receives 70% of its funding from the very pharmaceutical industries that supplies NRT products. How am I supposed to take anything such an organization says seriously when their sponsers have such a vested interested in the information being disseminated.

The organization states in the release that it “does not consider it to be a legitimate therapy for smokers trying to quit” and that the only way to know if they are a useful smoking cessation aid is to test.

Its glaringly obvious that E Cigarettes aren’t considered “legitimate” because their partners in the chemical industry don’t have their finger in the pie. Who after all, apart from Big Pharma, has the money to “conduct clinical studies and toxicity analysis and operate within the proper regulatory framework” to make E Cigarettes “legitimate”?

All this is par for the course I suppose, but its shocking to me that this information will be regurgitaed many times as gospel because it came from someone “respectable” at the World Health Organization. I’ll stick to making up my own mind about how to live my life based on my experiences and those of people I trust, you should do the same!

In all seriousness though, its important that research is carried out to discover any negative health effects that might occur from our new habit. Its no use convincing ourselves that just because E Cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco products that we no longer have to think about their safety. Its my great hope that E Cigarettes are going to be with us for a long time, I love my DSE901 and I’m not ready to give it up, but if we want E Cigarettes to be accepted by society as a whole we need to be able to prove that the product is safe. Governments are making a killing from the sale of tobacco products and are eventually going to try find an excuse to ban the sale of E smokes. Lets make it as hard as we can for them to find that excuse by either proving E Cigs are absolutely safe or, if required, develop some that are.

On that note, here’s a little bit of research that was carried out in New Zealand that looks like a promising start.

Anyway, he’s been tobacco free for over 2 weeks now and is bravely resisting the lure of his favourite smokes. When I spoke to him last night he promised to persevere as long as it takes to beat the ciggies. I’ll let you know how he goes.