Thoughts of e-cigs

An early e-cigarette (source)

It's been a while since electronic cigarettes appeared in America. The first commercially available model was a cigarette sized device with a prefilled nicotine fluid cartridge. The end would glow with LED light as you inhale. A component inside could sense the movement of air and power the unit on for only the moments you inhale. Once the fluid was used up the device could be thrown away. It was invented by a chinese pharmacist in 2003 whose idea was quickly commercialized worldwide by the company he worked for and spread around the copycat circuit within a few short years.

A pen style vaporizer (source)

The next step in the evolution of ecigs included larger rechargeable batteries and the ability for the user to use their own tobacco fluid. (called e-juice or e-liquid) While the first ecig created its vapor ultrasonically by using a piezo electric atomizer, the new devices used a tiny heating element as their atomizers. A fiber wick drew the juice gradually into the area of the heating wire, now called the "cartomizer." Ecigs became capable of not only tobacco liquid, but able to vaporize solid extracts, such as with our Vape Pen Dabbler.



Eventually ecig designs have expanded to the myriad choices we have today. Ecigs now are a billion dollar industry, primarily coming from one area of Southern China where hundreds of companies compete in the world market.  New designs travel unauthorized from company to company, complicating the job of parsing out who are the originating companies and who are the knockoffs.  Typically when an unscrupulous company copies another's design, key points of quality and reliability get lost in the translation. When a third company copies the second, and a fourth copies the third, reliability becomes a hit or miss.  Most ecigs sold today are in this category of being a design copied from a design and so on.

Interested to find the better ecigs and become a trustworthy source of them, we've been testing all types available and rating them on their reliability and quality. We're also studying the state of regulation - currently there is not much - to see if this market will still be around in the long run. It seems like it will.

Not only is the ecig a relief to the lungs of smokers, it allows them to smoke in places previously impossible.  While the ingredients of ecig juice are a sticking point for many folks concerned with their health, no one has found the juice to be actually harmful. Although, juice commonly found in corner stores and from distributors online is a complete unknown as far as quality and safety. Ecig juice often contains chemicals and compounds unfit for human consumption, often without ingredient disclosures. Currently, no regulatory agency is able to mitigate the problem.

Ecigs themselves have been fraught with failure and concerns over chemicals running rampant in an industry that is not yet regulated.  Opposition is fierce and world wide, although mostly driven by those who are ignorant to the ecigs benefits as an alternative to smoking.  The biggest source of funding against ecigs come from the industries who would lose- the makers of cigarettes.  Health advocates complain that ejuice's main component Propylene Glycol, which is also an ingredient of antifreeze, is a health concern. But Propylene Glycol (commonly called PG) is an ingredient of many things such as food and lotions and is not known to be toxic in small amounts. Even the most conspiracy minded site Natural News raises little concern.

A visual comparison of ecig vs smoking (source)

Into this fray we have realized the benefits far outweigh the risks.  We think ecigs can rightly be called a "harm reduction device," in that they may have their own issues, but are far safer than smoking cigarettes. We know from our vaporizing experience that people who cut down their smoking and vaporize instead enjoy increased lung function and the elimination of many smoker's issues. Perhaps the safest thing of all is not to inhale anything. But if you're going to use herbs or tobacco, the vaporizer is going to be by far a less impact on your health.

But back to finding a safe and reliable ecigarette...

photo by Vaporbrothers

Our takeaway from this is to try all types of ecigs ourselves and rate them on their design. Juices only come from trusted sources.  When we finish our search, our Vaporbrothers approved ecig will carry our guarantee of quality and inhalation safety. And just like with our organic herbal blends that contain no secret ingredients or chemicals, we will be able to provide our own juice to be safer and more pure than what's available in the corner store.  Expect more news later this year for the development of a Vaporbrothers approved e-cigarette and a quality juice selection.


-Vaporbrothers


Edit 9/2015: The UK Government considers e-cigs to be 95% safer than smoking! This confirms the e-cig as a viable harm reduction device! See the study here.