Electronic cigars and cigarettes-nicotine spray directly into lungs

[underpants]

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F20090227%2Fcapt.01b96fbfed2b4a27855e3b19c1f1aacc.electronic_cigarettes_gfx693.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F20090227%2Fcapt.96014368ee3649edbf6e59738b90eb36.china_smokeless_smokes_ny207.jpg
A worker assembles electronic cigars at the Ruyan factory in Tianjin, China, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. The battery-powered products, which resemble real cigarettes and cigars but produce a fine nicotine spray absorbed quickly and directly by the lungs, are gaining ground in America and Europe, and have even made a dent in China, home to 350 million smokers - the world's biggest tobacco market.
(AP Photo/Greg Baker)

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A worker tests the amber LED lights on electronic cigarettes at the Ruyan factory in Tianjin, China, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. The battery-powered products, which resemble real cigarettes but produce a fine nicotine spray absorbed quickly and directly by the lungs

Chinese e-cigs gain ground amid safety concerns
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jwETll8rB7gQPC1Xh516-0DSrdzwD96KAUA80
The Ruyan V8, which produces a nicotine-infused mist absorbed directly into the lungs, is just one of a rapidly growing array of electronic cigarettes attracting attention in China, the U.S. and elsewhere — and the scrutiny of world health officials.

Marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and a potential way to kick the habit, the smokeless smokes have been distributed in swag bags at the British film awards and hawked at an international trade show.

Because no burning is involved, makers say there's no hazardous cocktail of cancer-causing chemicals and gases like those produced by a regular cigarette. There's no secondhand smoke, so they can be used in places where cigarettes are banned, the makers say.

Health authorities are questioning those claims.

"There is not sufficient evidence that (they) are safe products for human consumption," Timothy O'Leary, a communications officer at the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative in Geneva, said this week.

Prices range from about $60 to $240. Kits include battery chargers and cartridges that range in flavors (from fruit to menthol) and nicotine levels (from zero — basically a flavored mist — to 16 milligrams, higher than a regular cigarette.) The National Institutes of Health says regular cigarettes contain about 10 milligrams of nicotine.

Smoking Everywhere, a Florida-based company, proclaims it "a much better way to smoke!" while a clip on YouTube features an employee of the NJoy brand promoting its e-cigarettes at CES, the international consumer technology trade show.

Online sales make it even more difficult to regulate the industry, which still falls in a gray area in many countries.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration has "detained and refused" several brands of electronic cigarettes because they were considered unapproved new drugs and could not be legally marketed in the country, said press officer Christopher Kelly.

[carlyhippy]

1. plastic cigarettes

looks like they are smoking a flashlight, but if it works, then that is great. No second hand smoke.

[annabanana]

2. The question is... what , exactly, are the hazards of nicotine. .

when it has been divorced from the hazards of burning tobacco (& all the chemicals therein)?

DH has one of these devices and he has gone from 2 packs to 1/2 pack per day.. a change it took one day to accomplish.

There is now no second hand smoke in the house, no stink to the fabrics, no new little burn marks in the linoleum. .

[Thickasabrick]

4. Sweet....where did he get it?

[annabanana]

5. online

http://www.puresmoker.com/
He has the pocket mini... looks kind of like a Tiparillo.

[Warpy]

6. It cases vasospasm

meaning it causes your arteries to narrow. It's why smokers have cold hands when they're smoking, why their skin ages so much faster than non smoker's skin.

I've taken care of people who have had heart attacks and heart damage from the vasospasm, alone. Their coronary arteries were clean. A blast of nicotine just caused them to clamp shut long enough to cut off blood supply to the heart and damage it.

It's rare, but it happens.

[Warpy]

3. Wow, anything to keep you hooked on nicotine, I guess

The last thing the cigarette companies want to do is lose customers.

Still, anything is better than smoking unless you have cardiovascular disease already. In that case, nicotine in any form can be deadly.

[Thickasabrick]

7. Some studies indicate nicotine may be effective in preventing the onset

of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. It enhances the release of neurotransmitters which helps with ADD.

I'm sure it has it's downsides too.

[annabanana]

8. The nicotine mist comes in different flavors....

DH seems to like the coconut. (regular grade artificial flavors apparently)

[Thickasabrick]

11. Sweet!!! Coconut - I might actually be able to transfer my habit to something else!!

Thanks for the links too!!

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. Don't think it'll catch on. There's a psychological aspect to smoking: smoke.

Ask a smoker who has smoked in the darkness. It just doesn't satisfy if you don't SEE the smoke from the cig, and that which you exhale.

This from an ex-smoker who quit cold turkey.

[annabanana]

12. There is vapor when you exhale.... looks just like smoke..

You also "drag" on them the same way as on cigs...

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. That might change things I guess. I posted without reading. Sorry. n/t

[Donnachaidh]

10. Considering China's wretched safety problems in the past, you'd be NUTS to buy this

Some manager wanting to squeak a bit more profit from the thing will just dump some other chemicals into the process.

Yeah, trust the Chinese on consumer safety. :rofl:

[annabanana]

13. I looked it up.. There have been some studies in Holland

and somewhere in Scandanavia

[annabanana]

18. self delete wrong place

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jwETll8rB7gQPC1Xh516-0DSrdzwD96K5HLO0

[damntexdem]

15. Why not just supply syringes and let the addicts shoot up?

Or would that kill them too quickly?

[endless october]

21. an injection of nicotine would kill you.

[billyoc]

16. Nah, it's just not the same

without all the people around me crying about second hand smoke. :hi:

[Thickasabrick]

17. LOL....yup....takes all the fun out of it. eom

:fistbump:

[annabanana]

19. Here's an AP article about it:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jwETll8rB7gQPC1Xh516-0DSrdzwD96K5HLO0

[endless october]

20. i'm glad to be free of that demon.

or at least 8 months free. each day puts it a little further in the rearview. good.