In the fourth year of smoking, I was thoroughly sick with shortness of breath, difficulty breathing in the process of falling asleep and a stable fee of 37 rubles for a comfortable stay of a new day. I did not want to quit smoking, so I decided to move to another level of development of this bad habit. Best of all, the reason for the purchase was explained to me by friends: “If it were possible to eat from USB and download beer on the Internet, you would have done it for a long time”.

Disclaimer: I do not call for the use of nicotine in any form: through smoking or chewing tobacco, using nicotine patches, candy or chewing gum, as well as using the “electronic cigarette” described in the topic. Also, an electronic cigarette is not a wonderful cure for nicotine addiction. The post is written in order to increase the amount of useful information about the gadget, about which the majority has a very vague idea, based on rumors and prejudices.

I decided to switch to smoking electronic cigarettes. Another couple of friends told me that "they will not help" (although, I remind you, quitting smoking was not in my plans). I confirm: electronic cigarettes are a purely individual substitute for regular cigarettes. These are completely different things, with different taste and smell; with a regular cigarette, an electronic cigarette is related only to the similarity of a substance inhaled by a smoker with tobacco smoke, so that -

Theory and blah blah

A nicotine inhaler was invented in 2003 by the Chinese scientist Hon Lik - the inventor smoked two packs of cigarettes a day until his father (also a smoker) died of lung cancer. The device was called the "electronic cigarette", and in 2005 the company owning the brand Golden Dragon Group Ltd began exporting from China.
In fact, there was nothing special to invent. A standard electronic cigarette consists of three parts:

• battery - with a button or with built-in pressure sensor that responds to tightness. Charging, most often, from USB;
• atomizer - heating nichrome spiral + metal foam;
• cartridge - a container with a special liquid.

When a smoker presses a button (in the case of a button battery) and pulls on an electronic cigarette, liquid enters the atomizer from the cartridge, the nichrome filament starts to heat up, and the incoming liquid evaporates. That is, the smoke does not enter the lungs of the smoker — an aerosol with a solid dispersed phase, but a vapor. There are quite a few types of atomizers, they have recommended themselves types 510, 801, 901, each gives its own quantity of steam and in its own way reveals one or another taste and aroma. Accordingly, the appropriate battery is selected for the type of atomizer. Also there are so-called. cartomizers - refillable cartridges with integrated atomizers.
The main component of an electronic cigarette is liquid. It consists of propylene glycol and / or glycerin, liquid nicotine, and food flavoring. I am not a chemist or pharmacist, so I can not declare 100% harmless use of such a mixture in the lungs, as well as the absence of consequences from the daily use of propylene glycol. However, the fact is that I began to use nicotine, which I needed in cigarettes, without concomitant inhalation of over 9000 tar, carcinogens, carbon monoxide, polonium -210, lead-210 and radium-226.
A separate song - the taste and smell of liquid. There are fluids with tobacco, flower, fruit and specific tastes - for example, with the taste of condensed milk or energy (and the Italians make liquids with flavors of roasted bacon, onion, anchovies and fried potatoes). On many sites, you can order both a ready-made liquid and ingredients for its independent preparation. Standard doses of nicotine are 0, 6, 12 and 18 mg / ml.
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Checked on yourself

A geek would not be a geek if he had not read all the thematic forums before the purchase. Theoretically, it was possible to order a five-dollar test mini-cigarette at dealextreme, but I decided not to wait for delivery and buy an “adult” eGo-T model. On the one hand, this is an extreme model of the renowned Joye office, the author of the “classics” Joye 510, on the other hand, it is based on the innovative fluid injection system that was modernized. If in all other models the liquid is poured into the synthetic winterizer that wets the atomizer, then here the cartridges are milliliter tanks, which are punctured by the atomizer needle. The liquid enters directly into the atom, the possibility of sticking to the sinteponovyh threads is excluded, less fussing with refueling. The forums complained that this model often flows, but other atoms could be screwed onto the battery.
I decided not to buy a set in a branded box and pay extra for the air in it, and collected a cigarette from the components. I took the battery the most capacious of the available ones - 1000 mAh, I bought three tanks to the atom, selected the best tobacco liquor from reviews and scattered an order for different shops, depending on where it was and what was cheaper. In the evening, after meeting with couriers, I had a whole new electronic cigarette.
First impressions: cool and tasty stuff, but I will still smoke "analog". However, the next day, the desire to drag on with a regular cigarette has greatly weakened, in two days it has gone somewhere completely in the desire of the tenth order. For me, this turned out to be completely different from all past attempts to quit smoking; there was no annoying itch in the subcortex. A week later, the sense of smell and sense of taste returned (I realized this when I sat down in the morning trolleybus - from two passengers I was carrying squid and dried fish noticeably. I don’t really like these smells anyway, and then I’ve got too much eye strain). Then I bought additional liquids and flavors - now I have cookies and butters, cola, grapefruit, bergamot, wild berries, tutti-frutti gum with the taste of Juicy Fruit and pipe tobacco in my arsenal. So,

Pros:

• All the advantages associated with quitting smoking (shortness of breath, smell from the mouth, from hands and clothes disappeared, it became easier to breathe and all that);
• Instead of smoke - delicious and fragrant steam;
• You can soar anywhere;
• No need to run every day in a stall, “Balin, forgot to buy cigarettes” disappears;
• No one "shoots" cigarettes.

Minuses:

• You need to refill the cartridges and wash the atomizers before changing the liquid (sometimes you want to drop everything and return to the analog);
• On the table and in the bag now - a pair of syringes, a scattering of bubbles, empty and full cartridges instead of a compact pack;
• The number of puffs I have to control myself, at first I hovered almost constantly;
• Although you can soar everywhere, in public places you have to restrict yourself and go into smoking rooms so as not to fight with valiant watchmen and guards;
• After some time, eGo-T really began to flow, I had to spend money again.

My resume

I haven’t found any intelligible research proving the harm or benefit of electronic smoking. For example, the All-Russian Research Institute of Tobacco, Shag and Tobacco Products was able to prove only that a significant amount of propylene glycol is contained in a pair of e-cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes are not a way to quit smoking, although many e-smokers are gradually switching to non-nicotine mixtures. Comparing them with ordinary ones is the same thing as comparing a chair for a piano and sitting in the subway. Also, I would not vote for significant savings, as manufacturers of electronic cigarettes: I have already spent about 4,000 rubles, although I stocked up half a year in advance. If someone from the smoker users read my post and decided to try this way of smoking, my advice is not to buy advertised Pons, and to buy as a first liquid, not tobacco liquid, but something fruit.

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