A powerful preventive against pneumonia, influenza and other respiratory diseases may be promised by a brilliant series of experiments conducted during the last three years at the University of Chicago’s Billings Hospital. Dr. Oswald Hope Robertson last week was making final tests with a new germicidal vapor—propylene glycol—to sterilize air. If the results so far obtained are confirmed, one of the age-old searches of man will finally achieve its goal.

Link

Crazy. E Cigarette 2nd hand vapour just might be good for you.

Another report states the same benefits of PG when 105 children were exposed in 1945.

Inhalational safety in children. In a series of experiments to control airborne infections, over 105 children were subjected to bactericidal concentrations of propylene glycol in the wards of a children’s convalescent home in experiments conducted over 3 years.

Method. Six wards of the Children’s Seashore House in Atlanta containing 105 bedfast children aged 3 to 15 years were divided into 3 control and 3 undergoing vaporization for 3 week periods with 2 to 3 days between, before the control wards become vaporized, and the vaporized wards became controls. This rotation continued for 7 months. The PG was heated to vaporize it, but not above 80 degrees C, and vaporization continuously maintained a concentration of 0.069 mg per liter. (0.07 ppm)

Results. No ill effects were reported. In the first year, 100 infections occurred in control wards without PG, and 5 in wards with PG  vaporization, with rates of 0.18 per week and 0.09 per week respectively. Most of the upper respiratory infections in control wards were common colds, suggesting the PG is also virucidal.

Harris TN and Stokes Jnr, J. Summary of 3-year study of the clinical application of the disinfection of air by glycol vapour. Am. J. Med Sci. 1945; 209:152-156.

I’d be interested in finding more of these types of tests.

So, how do I feel at the start of week three? I am starting to notice a few things. My lungs actually do feel a bit clearer today. The slight yellow tint on my index/middle fingers has faded. I can smell regular cigarette smoke – which I always could but when you don’t smoke it has a different smell than when you do smoke. I’m also enjoying not having to stand around outside.

I have noticed one possible side effect of using e-cigs – dry mouth in the morning. Now, this could just be related to allergy season kicking in and me being a little stuffy. At some point in my sleep I must start breathing through my mouth and that could be drying it out. We’ll see how this goes over the next few weeks.

Overall I’m pleased with the changeover.

I received new juice flavours last week so I’ve been having fun mixing and blending. After a bit of trial and error I’m currently enjoying a blend of PG “classic tobacco”, VG “tobacco”, PG RY4, and PG peppermint – all mixed in equal parts. I’ve mixed up several batches and this is what I’m using today.

The RY4 flavour is a bit of a mystery. From what I can tell this blend was developed by Ruyan – the original e-cig developer. This flavour being copied by just about everyone. Some say it tastes like tobacco with a hint of caramel. I’ve seen it listed as a Juicy-Fruit flavour. One recipe I found for it included tobacco, caramel, and marshmallow flavours. Everyone seems to think it tastes like something different, and I think because of everyone attempting to copy it, it does. The bottle I received tastes a bit like smokey caramel. The prefilled cartridges I received from Happy Vaper taste almost like cotton candy. Hmmmm? Weird. In any case, it seems to be a fairly popular flavour and I recommend it to people just getting started. Try it and see what it tastes like to you.

Speaking of flavours, Happy Vaper has 100′s of base flavours you can order and make your own mixes. They have everything to mint, tobacco, pear, butter, lemon, and various meat flavours. Yes, meat. I even saw asparagus.

Personally, I don’t think sitting around vaping roast beef and asparagus sounds very appealing. To each their own.

Some of the pre-mixed liquid I ordered last week contain too much nicotine for my taste.  They say they contain about the same levels as the liquid I originally started with (between 16-24 mg) but for some reason these just seem stronger. The liquid of the stronger fluid seems a tad thinner in viscosity so perhaps this has something to do with it? More liquid is getting to the vapourizer perhaps? I’m not quite sure. Cutting it with a 50% mix of another fluid seems to do the trick. Today I received some unflavoured/non-nicotine PG and VG fluid. I’m going to experiment with cutting the stronger fluid down and seeing how that works.

And speaking of mixing and flavours – I ordered a bunch of straight flavours today to play with. I ordered peppermint, clove, maple, hazelnut, vanilla, caramel, chocolate and a couple of tobacco flavours. That should keep me occupied in my little mad scientist lab for a bit. If I come up with any super cool mixes I’ll be sure to post them.

In my last entry I said I ordered a new device. It arrived today and I’m enjoying right now. The device I ordered was the Janty eGo starter kit. The eGo is basically a suped-up Joye 510. It uses the same atomizers and mouth pieces but the battery is a slight larger and it has a cone piece that fits over the atomizer.The starter kit contained two batteries, one standard 510 atomizer, one of the cones, 5 pre-filled cartridges, and a USB charger. I ordered the stainless steel version.

The device itself seems fairly rugged. It really isn’t that much larger than the standard 510 battery. It is a bit thicker around and a touch longer. The standard 510 is about 9mm thick and the eGo is about 13mm. Ideally the battery on this bugger is supposed to last me all day. The standard 510 uses a 3.7 volt, 180 mAh battery. The eGo uses a 3.7 volt, 650 mAh battery. I’ve found with my normal use the standard 510 battery lasts around two hours before I need to recharge. Let’s see how long the eGo lasts.

I also ordered a low resistance atomizer.

Low resistance (LR) atomizers is the thing all the vapour-people are talking about right now. It is supposed to burn a bit hotter and produce more vapour. Apparently you are NOT to use these on standard 510 batteries (High drain or something. Some talk about killing the batteries. I’m not quite sure.) The down side to the LR atomizers is I hear they burn out faster. The costs of the LR 510 atomizers are the same as traditional 510′s so I thought I’d give them a go.

I charged both of my new eGo batteries, put a new standard atomizer on one and the new FR atomizer on the other. I primed both new atomizers with a couple drops of RY4 and I popped on two new pre-filled RY4 cartridges. I used them side by side for about 30  minutes.

At first use, I’m not noticing anything different. They seem to both be providing the same amount of vapour. Hmmm? Curious. I’ll keep playing with this and see if I notice anything different over time. Right now, I’m not impressed.

To change the subject: Here is something I’ve learned in my e-cig use I thought I’d share.

When you first fill a cartridge it provides more vapour in the first drags. There is lots of fluid, it gets down to the burner, and works great. When the cartridge gets down to about 50% empty the fluid doesn’t flow as well and you end up with lame drags. I hear people saying they carry a bottle of fluid with them and keep topping up the cartridges. That just seems like too much of a hassle and a bit messy for me.

What I’ve been doing is filling about 8-10 cartridges up and placing them in a box which I carry with me. When my current cartridge starts to not produce as much vapour I just swap it out with a fresh one. Quick. Easy. No muss. No fuss. At night I mix my liquid and refill all the cartridges.

The only thing I need to make this easier is a some sort of cartridge carrying container with two compartments – one for full and one for used.

Analogue: This is what some vapour people are calling traditional cigarettes. The idea being electronic cigarettes are digital in nature (or something). I don’t care for the term myself.

Atty: Atomizer

Cart: Cartridge. The mouthpiece which contains the liquid used to create vapour.

Cartomizer: A disposable, combined, atomizer and cartridge.

DIY: Do it yourself.

Dripping, Drip, Dipping, Dip: Putting e-juice directly on the atomizer (see below)

e-juice / e-liquid: The liquid which produces the vapour in an electronic cigarette.

Juice: The liquid which produces the vapour in an electronic cigarette.

LR or LR Atty: A low resistance atomizer which allows more power to the heating coil.

Mod: Short for modification. This is a custom design or a redesign of some aspect of the electronic cigarette.

PCC: Personal Charging Case.

PG: Propylene Glycol

PT: Pass-though. An alternate way of powering an electronic cigarette.

PTB Mod: Pyramid Tea Bag Modification. This uses tea bags as filler in a cartridge.

PV or Personal Vapourizer: The electronic cigarette

Ruyan: the company who first developed the electronic cigarette

TH or Throat Hit: The sensation on the back of the throat.

Topping or Topping Off: Refilling or topping off a cartridge with e-juice.

VG: Vegetable Glycerine

Vape or Vaping: This is commonly used in place of the term “smoking”.

-Electronic Cigarettes – How They Work

All electronic cigarettes contain the same basic elements – a power source (battery or some form of power adapter), an atomizer, and a mouthpiece (also known as a cartridge if it contains fluid).

The vapourizer liquid is heated by the atomizer. When this happens the liquid turns into a fine mist which is inhaled. The atomizer is basically a small heater coil and a wick of some sort to help feed the liquid into the coil.

-Types of Electronic Cigarettes

DSE-601 Electronic Pipe

E-cigarettes come in various shapes and sizes.

Super Mini – These are about the same size as a traditional king size cigarette.

Mini – These are about the same size as a traditional “100″ size cigarette.

Super – Supers are also made to look like regular cigarettes but are longer than the “mini”.

Pen Style – This is where we start to get away from emulating the cigarette look. Pen styles are just that, they look more like a ballpoint pen.

Cigar – Just what you would expect.

Pipe – These look like a traditional pipe.

Mods – This is a vast category. Most mods are basically a different battery holder for a standard group of atomizers. Some look like boxes, screwdrivers, flashlights and a whole slew of things. One mod I’ve seen is called the laser mod because it uses the case from a cheap laser pointer.

302 Pen Style

-Manual and Automatic

Electronic cigarettes come in two different operational modes – manual and automatic.

The automatic e-cigs have a sensor which activates when you inhale from the tip. This powers up the atomizer to provide vapour. The manual ones are just that. They have a switch of some kind you press to activate the atomizer.

The only ones I’ve used were manual. I read some of the automatic types can be triggered just by bouncing around in your pocket. I read of one case where the loud music in a club triggered the e-cig to fire in the guys shirt pocket.

Of course manual e-cigs can misfire as well. If it has a regular button, something can press on it when you least expect it. There are a few manual mods out there that provide a main power switch or a touch sensor switch.

-Atomizers (AKA; Atty)

The anatomy of an atomizer is basically a heating coil, a wick, a handful of air passages and a place to connect the battery.

New atomizers normally come with some sort of “primer” on them. This is a result of the manufacturing process. Many people report the primer as being safe but bitter tasting. It takes a handful of drags on a new atomizer before the primer taste disappears. Personally myself, I haven’t really noticed. It’s there, I can taste it, but I don’t find it as bad as some people claim.

Various Atomizers

There are a handful of popular size atomizers which are identified by the manufacturer model number. At the moment these are the 901/808D-1, 801, 401, 103/4081, and 510 (there are more but I don’t care to list them all). From what I can tell, most of the atomizers are all constructed in more or less the same way with the main difference being the size of the screw threads to attach the atomizer with the battery. Of course whenever someone creates two things of a different size, someone will invent an adapter so you can connect the two.

401 Atomizer

Atomizers have an unspecified life-span. Some people say they got several weeks of use off an atomizer while others say they’ve been using the same atomizer for months. Two main things can go wrong with an atomizer. The heating coil can burn out (a break in the coil so no electricity can pass) or it can become clogged. The heating coil can also get fully, or partially, coated in burned e-juice. This insulates the coil from properly heating e-juice and can result in poor or no vapour production.

There are many methods on how to clean and extend the usefulness of an atomizer and there is some minor regular maintenance that should be done to keep your atomizer running smoothly. I won’t get into the specifies of all the different ways to clean atomizers (that will be a future post), but here are a few guidelines.

Some people have had good luck using the “dry burn” method to clean the burned crud from the coil (google “atomizer dry burn”).

The air passages can get filled with old fluid and residue. Reduced airflow can result in low vapour production, It is fairly easy to maintain this. Remove the atomizer from the battery and cartridge. Put a paper towel over the mouthpiece end and blow into the atomizer from the battery side. This should blow out all the residue that has built up within the atomizer. You can also rinse the atomizer under hot water and then blow out the extra water. Make sure to let the atomizer fully dry before using it.

510 Atomizer in various colours

Sometimes liquid and other gunk can get on the battery connector. It is a good idea to clean around the battery contacts and threads on both the atomizer and the battery so there is always a good electrical contact. A few days back I actually thought I had a dead atomizer. I’d screw it on to the battery and it wouldn’t fire. The only thing wrong with it was the battery contact needed wiping off. Doh.

One thing that really sets atomizers apart is how you choose to use your electronic cigarette (see below). Some atomizers like the 510 are popular with people who use cartridges where as the 401 is good for dipping as the wick is exposed.

-Cartridge and/or Mouthpiece

The cartridge is a mouthpiece which contains a reservoir for e-liquid fluid. The cartridge attaches to the atomizer. There is a filler inside the reservoir which helps to hold the liquid. The most common filler is a fine threaded polyfill – much like what you see as the stuffing inside some pillows. There are two basic types of cartridge mouthpieces – flat (or whistle tip) or round. At first I thought I’d like the flat ones but the manual button on my battery is on the side and sometimes the button and flat mouthpiece don’t like up. This results in having to hold the e-cig in an unnatural way to trigger the button. Not a big deal, but I don’t have this problem with the round ones.

Flat or Whistle Tip cartridge

There are a number of modifications people are attempting to increase the usefulness of the filler and how it wicks fluid to the atomizer. This is something you won’t really need to worry about when you first get started but if you like fiddling with things you’ll have fun with this (I’m using the PTB Mod – using nylon tea bags as the filler – and having good luck with it).

Some electronic cigarettes use a cartomizer which is a cartridge and an atomizer combined.

There are other mouthpieces designed specially for “dripping” (see below).

-The Liquid (AKA e-juice)

E-Juice

The vapourizer liquid is a base of propylene glycol (PG) or vegetable glycerin (VG) or a mixture of the two and a flavouring. The liquid may also contain nicotine which is often listed in milligrams per milliliter (16mg, 20mg, etc).

You can buy e-juice in pre-filled cartridges or in bottles. Most bottles come in 10, 15 and 30 ml sizes. You can buy it flavoured or unflavoured, nicotine or no nicotine, in a drippy bottle or with a dropper, or in giant bulk bottles. Many people are buying unflavoured with nicotine and adding their own flavours.

How much e-juice fluid will you go through? This is really hard to say. Some people say they use 2 ml a day, others more, some less. I’ve stopped keeping track but I think I’m somewhere around 1-2 ml per day. The nicotine level I’m commonly using is 18-24mg. I have some e-juice I diluted from 24mg and I estimate it is around 12-14mg.

Like everything, the price varies on where you buy it and how much you buy at a time. I’m seeing 30ml bottles going for around $15-20 CAD.

-Power

At first glance the power aspect of electronic cigarettes seem confusing – but it really isn’t. I’ll try to explain the differences.

Battery – The most used power source for an electronic cigarette is a lithium ion battery. Obviously this is because it is small, portable and convenient. Batteries are recharged in a standard charger or some can be charged in a charge case (PCC). The common voltage for the mini’s are around 3 – 4 volts. The mAh (or, in simple terms, how long the battery will last) is around 100-200 mAh. The higher the mAh number is, the more vaping you can do on a single charge.

510 Manual Battery

To give you an example; I have two different batteries for my 510 atomizer. One is 180 mAh and the other is 650 mAh. The 180 mAh battery will last around 1-2 hours of average use. The 650 mAh will last around 8 hours of average use. I read somewhere one person counted 499 20-30 second drags off a single charge of a 650 mAh battery. To put that in perspective of average cigarette use, before I switched to e-cigs I counted about how many drags I took off a king size cigarette. It was normally around 10-14 drags.

Commonly the electronic cigarette battery will have an LED on the end of the battery which lights when the device is in use.

Some batteries contain an electronic component which shuts the battery down if it is switched on too long. This is to avoid atomizer coil burnout. Some will shut down the battery if the voltage is too low – which would not produce proper vapour. On these, when the voltage runs too low, the LED will flash 15 or more times to indicate it is time to recharge.

USB Pass-Through

USB Passthrough – A USB passthrough is a device which plugs into a USB port and connects directly to the atomizer of the e-cigarette. Many USB passthoughs also contain a small box with a battery somewhere along the wire. On those devices the atomizer is powered by the battery and the power from the USB port recharges the battery.

A USB passthough can be powered by the USB port in your computer or laptop, a powered USB hub, or an adapter (AC or auto cigarette lighter).

Battery Pack – I don’t think battery packs are in production by any major electronic cigarette manufacturers, but I’ve seen some on-line. Basically the battery pack is an external battery which connects to the atomizer by a wire. The reason for this is to have a power source which provides either more voltage or more mAh.

-Voltage

As I mentioned above, most minis run around 3 to 4 volts. 3.7 volts seems to be fairly common with the “popular” models.

Some people have discovered that providing a bit more power (5 to 6 volts) to the atomizers this causes the heating coil to heat up faster and run hotter which produces a thicker vapour. The downside to running at higher volts is you will run a risk of burning out your atomizer heating coil. Higher volts will also eat through more e-juice. There are companies out there which produce higher volt devices which commonly use the 801, 901 or 510 atomizers.

I would say the higher volt models are not a good jumping off point for entry-level vaping.

-Low Resistance Atomizers (AKA; LR or LR atty)

Low resistance atomizers allow more power to travel from the battery (or power source) to your atomizer heating coil. This emulates the results of higher voltage devices. Commonly a 510 atomizer has a resistance of 2.3 ohms. Low resistance atomizers run around 1.5 ohms.

Like running an atomizer at a higher voltage, low resistance atomizers run hotter and the talk is they burn out faster.

To reduce the risk of damaging your battery, you should only use LR atomizers at 3.7 volts and on batteries with over 450 mAh (at least this is true with the 510 LR atomizers).

-How People Rate “Vaping”.

Vaping is the verb for the action of using an electronic cigarette. Commonly people will refer to how well it produces vapour, the “throat hit” (TH), and fullness of flavour. The throat hit is really what emulates smoking a real cigarette. It is a slight peppery burn in the back of your throat. Not all e-liquids provide the throat hit. If you were to vape on plain VG fluid you wouldn’t feel it (trust me, I tried it). The throat hit comes from the nicotine content, the fluid mixture, and how well of a vapour the device produces.

Vegetable glycerin is good at creating a thick vapour, but doesn’t seem to be able to provide a good throat hit. Propylene glycol can produce a good throat hit but doesn’t produce a great vapour. Needless to say this is why more and more people are mixing both bases to get the best of both worlds.

The only way I can describe the vapour itself is to say it is softer than cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke is smoke. Vapour is more like dense steam.

-How To Use Your Electronic Cigarette.

How you use the e-cig comes down to how you get the liquid to the atomizer. There are three main ways;

Cartridge – This is the standard method. The cartridge is part of the mouthpiece and it contains a reservoir which holds the liquid e-juice. The amount of e-juice a reservoir can hold depends on the cartridge – but from what I can tell is seems to be commonly around 1/2 ml or so. The majority of the cartridges are refillable in one way or another. Refilling your own cartridges takes time (not THAT much time) and it can also save you a bundle of money. Another benefit of refilling is you can mix various flavours and nicotine strengths. I think 80% of electronic cigarette users refill their cartridges.

Drip Tips

Dripping – The user drips a few drops directly on the atomizer’s wick. Some companies have started making mouthpieces designed for dripping. These are called drip tips. They are designed to be able to drip liquid directly down the mouthpiece without removing it.

Dipping – The user dips the atomizers wick into the e-juice.

-Sounds good. I want to use one. What should I buy?

Like I mentioned in my first post, Adventures in Electronic Cigarettes – Part 1, I did a fair amount of research on devices before I jumped in and bought my own. I waded through many different websites and forums, read reviews, and took into consideration the comments left by the general population of vapour-people.

Overall, the top contender for a entry level device is the Joye 510.

The core of every system is really the atomizer and the 510 atomizer tends to be a generally well liked product. There are tons of modifications and other products that use the 510 atomizer so your options for the future are open. You wouldn’t want to invest in 5-8 atomizers ($50-80) and then decide to change to an entirely different format. Many people started with the 510 and months later are still very happy with it.

510′s are also readily available. Almost every full service on-line store I’ve seen carries parts and accessories for the 510.

So, you’re ready to take the plunge into the world of electronic cigarette? Now, where to start and what to buy. Here is where I point people.

-Hardware

I have two recommendations.

A basic 510 Starter Kit

Joye 510 Starter Kit – There are several starter kits out there but find one that contains a couple batteries, a PCC (charging case), a few atomizers and a handful of cartridges. Some include a USB passthrough device or other battery charging options which are nice to have.

This really is a fine jumping off point. The charging case has a slot for three full cartridges, a battery (which will charge in the case) and space for a spare atomizer (Because atomizers can fail at any time, it is a good idea to carry a spare with you). The 510′s are a nice size and the PCC fits in a shirt pocket.

Janty eGo starter kit - Commonly this comes with two batteries, an atomizer, an atomizer cone, a charger and a handful of cartridges. The advantage to the eGo is the higher mAh battery (650 mAh) over the standard Joye 180 mAh battery. If you order the eGo starter kit, I would recommend ordering at least one more atomizer.

The eGo does not have a carry case because ideally the battery should last you most of the day. This also means you’ll need to figure out a way to carry around your extra cartridges. To start, an empty Altoids tin works well.

Janty eGo

While you are at it, order a handful of ready to be filled cartridges. These often come in a pack of 5. This will give you a chance to play with your new e-juice flavours.

-Juice

Normally the starter kits come with some kind of pre-filled cartridges. Take a shot in the dark with these. Just pick what sounds good.

I suggest getting a few small bottles of different flavours and nicotine strengths. I would advice starting with a nicotine strength under 24mg – just to be on the safe side.

Being a smoker, at first I was interested in tobacco flavours. I’m sort of drifting away from this right now. I’m starting with a tobacco base and highlighting it with other flavours. Right now, peppermint is my augment of choice. This is kind of weird because I always disliked menthol cigarettes.

I mixed two of my e-juices together and it produced a maple aftertaste. I actually really enjoyed this. So much so I’ve ordered a maple flavouring to add to my tobacco flavours. I would never have expected that.

But, this isn’t that unusual. I’m actually reading many people are experiencing the same thing.

Pick out a few flavours that sound good and experiment. 10ml bottles are small and are fairly inexpensive.

Are Electronic Cigarettes Safe?
by Kristin Noll-Marsh

Recently, there has been media coverage about the safety of electronic cigarettes, which may be confusing and a bit scary.

History

Electronic cigarettes were intended to be a less-toxic (or “safer”) option to smoking tobacco cigarettes, but not a treatment to quit smoking. Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik invented the e-cigarette in 2003 with a patented ultrasonic technology. Hon Lik was inspired to invent this smoking alternative, because his father was dying from lung cancer. Since then, most e-cigarette manufacturers use a heating element that vaporizes the nicotine liquid instead.

Read more: http://emerging-business-markets.suite101.com/article.cfm/sources_for_imported_ecigarettes#ixzz0TNTSptUJ

Nicotine

It’s well documented that currently available treatments for smokers, nicotine replacement therapies such as patches and gums, are largely ineffective, with just a 7% success rate after 12 months. This is largely due to the fact that smokers aren’t just addicted to the nicotine; they are addicted to the actual habit and ritual of smoking a cigarette. It is a comfort system for them. That is even stronger than nicotine addiction.

However, the greatest danger in cigarette smoking is not the nicotine. Nicotine, while highly addictive, is a stimulant similar to caffeine and not toxic in low, intermittent doses, which is why it can be used in nicotine replacement therapies. Nicotine, by itself, does NOT cause cancer, but is known to have some side effects. Cigarette smoke, on the other hand, contains more than just nicotine. It contains hundreds of toxic chemicals and dozens of known carcinogens.

Hon Lik seems to have believed that there could be an option for smokers, to still have the act of smoking, while limiting exposure to the chemicals, toxins and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. He had to have known that the smoker would still need relief from the nicotine addiction, so to get them to switch to the less toxic electronic cigarettes; he had to include doses of nicotine. The typical electronic cigarette liquid contains water, propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine & food-grade flavoring.

Read more: http://www.drugs.com/sfx/nicotine-side-effects.html

Diethylene glycol

You may have heard that the FDA found traces (1%) of diethylene glycol in one Smoking Everywhere brand prefilled cartridge. Diethylene glycol is a highly toxic substance used in tobacco processing (and in anti-freeze) and is NOT used to manufacture electronic cigarette liquid. Because it used in tobacco processing, cheaper, less refined nicotine may become contaminated with traces of diethylene glycol. It is the most likely explanation of how one cartridge may have been contaminated. The other 17 cartridges were not found to have been contaminated with diethylene glycol. Many liquid manufacturers use U.S. made pharmaceutical-grade nicotine, the same as used in FDA-approved nicotine patches and gums and should not contain any diethylene glycol.

Read more: Diethylene glycol – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Propylene Glycol

Propylene glycol is commonly confused in the media with diethylene glycol as the toxic ingredient found in antifreeze. (Anti-freeze is actually most commonly made with ethylene glycol.) While propylene glycol can be found in some antifreeze, it is actually added to it to make it LESS toxic.

“Antifreeze typically contains ethylene glycol as its active ingredient, but some manufacturers market propylene glycol-based antifreeze, which is less toxic to humans and pets. The acute, or short-term, toxicity of propylene glycol, especially in humans, is substantially lower than that of ethylene glycol. Regardless of which active ingredient the spent antifreeze contains, heavy metals contaminate the antifreeze during service. When contaminated, particularly with lead, used antifreeze can be considered hazardous and should be reused, recycled, or disposed of properly.”

Read more: http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/antifree.htm

Propylene glycol is actually approved for human consumption by the FDA and approved for human inhalation by the EPA. It is a common ingredient in many foods and medicines, such as McCormick (and other brand) imitation food flavoring, toothpaste, cough syrup, hand sanitizer, lotions, cosmetics and more.

Read more:
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/propylene_glycol_red.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol

Tobacco-specific Nitrosamines

The FDA analysis found “tobacco-specific nitrosamines” in the samples tested. These nitrosamines are created during the curing and processing of tobacco and would be expected to be found, in trace amounts, in nicotine extracted from processed tobacco. In tobacco smoke, they are found in high concentration and are a leading cause of tobacco-related cancers. These carcinogens were found in much smaller amounts in the electronic cigarette liquid and are found in other tobacco and nicotine products, including chew, snuf, patches, gum and inhalers. A study at Oxford concluded that the highest levels of these nitrosamines are found in the reaction of tobacco smoke and minimal in NRTs. Levels of nitrosamines found in electronic cigarettes are at or below those found in NRTs.

Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco-specific_nitrosamines

http://www.ecassoc.org/downloads/Response-to-the-FDA-Summary.pdf

http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/18/3/587.pdf

Flavoring

Most companies use water-based, food-grade flavorings for their liquids. They make up a very small percentage of the total liquid content. These have been approved by the FDA for ingestion, but the effect of long-term inhalation has not been tested.

Most of the ingredients in electronic cigarette liquid has been tested and approved for long-term exposure in humans, but not when they are all mixed together. There are also no set minimal standards for manufacturing and the FDA has not approved any liquid for sale or use. The FDA wants to classify electronic cigarettes as a drug and drug delivery device for smoking cessation and wants appropriate studies done to show that they are safe. It is unklnown if the FDA will compare the safety of electronic cigarettes to that of smoking tobacco cigarettes long term or to using NRTs short term, to quit smoking.

Now you have the facts. You decide, for yourself, if you consider electronic cigarettes are safe (or at least safer than tobacco cigarettes) for YOU.

A diagram of a Joye 510 E-Cigarette I shamelessly stole from the interwebs.

My shipment of the hardware from www.happyvaper.com arrived safe and sound. I ordered a Joye 510 starter kit. The E-Cig device itself is fairly solid. It has a little weight to it. The battery and atomizer screw together and the threads are well machined – not bad for something that ultimately is fully consumable (IE: all the parts will wear out over time). The PCC (personal charging case) hold and charges one battery. It has a space for two cartridges and one atomizer. You can also attach another cartridge on the atomizer and carry three if you like. This is what I’ve been doing.

My e-liquid shipment from www.electronic-cigz.com arrived a few days later. I ordered two bottles of juice from these guys. One is Propylene Glycol (PG) based flavoured as “Classic Tobacco” with 16mg of nicotine. The second was Vegetable Glycerin (VG) based flavoured as “Tobacco” with 24mg of nicotine. Something happened during the shipment and the bottle of VG leaked out inside. Everything was covered in it. The liquid has a consistency of slightly less sticky maple syrup. Needless to say I got it all over everything attempting to clean it up. I let the fellow at electronic-cigz know this had happened and he is sending me another bottle of VG no charge. Darn nice of them.

The 510 PCC containing (from left to right) a cartridge, atomizer, cartridge, battery.

So all charged and ready to go I decide to fill two cartridges with each liquid and give them a go. The vapour created by both the PG and VG liquid seemed about the same. I think the VG had a bit more kick to it given it has more nicotine. The taste is nothing like a real cigarette. The “Classic Tobacco” had a slight cigarette smoke flavour to it. The VG’s “Tobacco” is almost more of a pipe tobacco with a hint of sweetness. I went back and forth between the two for the next few hours trying to see which I liked best. I decided to try a 50/50 mix of the two. Now THAT I really liked. It created a nice smoke-like flavour with an interesting aftertaste of something like maple candy. Perhaps a bit of hazelnut. It is very subtle and kind of hard to describe, but I like it.

How does “vaping” compare to regular smoking? It is different but I have to say I think I like it better. It took me a day or two to get used to using the device. Now that I have the hang of it, I’m satisfied with it. It isn’t as heavy as cigarette smoke and it is more like breathing in steam – which is pretty much what it is. I like that I can use it indoors without leaving a cloud of smoke behind me (even though I haven’t smoked inside my home for years). The exhaled vapour only has a slight smell to it which doesn’t seem to linger behind. If I use the E-Cig in a room for an hour, then leave the room, when I return I do not smell anything.

Since starting with the device I have only lit two regular cigarettes. The first was on the first day I received the device (which I smoked all of it) and the second was a day or two later (I took 3 drags and put it out). I don’t crave regular cigarettes or feel like I’m having any nicotine withdraw. As of right now I don’t feel really any different from not smoking regular cigarettes for a week. I would like to say my lungs feel clearer and my sinuses feel better – and they do slightly – but I’m not sure if this is actual or placebo. We will see  how I am after another week or two.

I was interested in how much juice I would be using on a regular basis. Since day one I have been mixing both liquids together which gives me a nicotine strength of about 20mg per milliliter of juice. I have a blunt needle 3ml syringe  and have been using this for mixing equal parts of the liquid and filling the cartridges. Each cartridge holds 1/2 ml of liquid. It seems you can not drain a cartridge completely because the fluid sticks to the filler and the sides and it will no longer wick to the atomizer. Because I have space in my PCC case for 3 cartridges and one more on my current battery, I filled 4 cartridges. I use these throughout the day and them top them up at night before I go to bed. On average it takes about 1/2 to 3/4 ml each day to top off the 4 cartridges. At this rate a single bottle of 30 ml fluid should last me a month. These cost, on average, around $20. That is quite a savings from my usual cigarette budget of around 3 cartons a month – around $270.

I have ordered a bunch of different fluids and flavours. I ordered a sample pack of five 10ml bottles from www.electronic-cigz.com. I ordered a PG and VG unflavoured, peppermint, camo (Camel cigarette flavoured) and Havana (I assume cigar).

I also ordered several liquids from another company called vapables.com. These are Dunhill (which was my brand of cigarette), Marly-boro (guess what that is supposed to taste like), Blended DK-TAB (which is a supposed to be a Turkish style blend) and RY #4. I’ve heard good things about RY #4 which sounds almost like the flavour I’m getting now. I also ordered a bottle of unflavoured 26mg PG liquid – this will allow me to up the nicotine dose on any of these flavours. In all I ordered 180 ml of juice which came to $114 with shipping.  If my calculations are correct just this order alone should last me around 6 months. 6 months of regular cigarettes would cost me around $1600. ZOINKS!. Going the e-cig route I’m saving around $1500 in 6 months (granted my atomizers will go dead so those will need to be replaced).

Perhaps after a few months of doing this I’ll do a post about costs and how the consumables are holding up.

Today I made another order with www.happyvaper.com. I ordered two 120ml bottles of unflavoured/non-nicotine PG and VG liquid. This will allow me to create some lightly nicotined mixes or reduce the nicotine levels in some stronger fluids.

I also broke down and ordered some different hardware. You see, I’m a real slut when it comes to devices and toys. I’ll let you know what this is on my next entry.

Overall, I’m well satisfied with Electronic Cigarettes. They feel safer in a million different ways over regular cigarettes. They don’t bother non-smokers like regular cigarettes. These things really should be promoted as smoking alternatives. Not everything fun is good for you, but these have got to be 100 times better than using cigarettes. I really hope these take off and I can buy e-cig products at a local store.

The e-cigarette was invented by a fellow named Hon Lik – a 2-3 pack a day smoker. According to a April 25, 2009 article in the LA Times, the idea came to him in 2000 in a dream. He said in the dream he was coughing and wheezing and imagined he was drowning. The waters around him lifted into a fog.

Eureka! Fog. Fog machines. E-cigarette! (at least that how I assumed he made the connection). By 2003 Hon Lik  had the patent on the device.  (An interesting follow-up, Mr Lik switched to e-cigarettes and later quit using nicotine all together.)

The vapourizer liquid is commonly propylene glycol, which is considered safe for humans. The product has been used as a transport in pharmaceuticals and as a food additive for years. A human would need to consume several liters of the stuff before showing any ill affects.

A found a summary report of a laboratory experiment done in 1947 with propylene glycol. The test animals lived in a propylene glycol rich environment for 12-18 months. The report states;

Examination at autopsy likewise failed to reveal any differences between the animals kept in glycolized air and those living in the ordinary room atmosphere. Extensive histological study of the lungs was made to ascertain whether the glycol had produced any generalized or local irritation. None was found. The kidneys, liver, spleen and bone marrow also were normal.

The results of these experiments in conjunction with the absence of any observed ill effects in patients exposed to both triethylene glycol and propylene glycol vapors for months at a time, provide assurance that air containing these vapors in amounts up to the saturation point is completely harmless.

That sounds pretty good to me. Much better than living in a tobacco smoke rich environment for months at a time. I’m sure it smells better too (of course, monkeys sort of stink and like to throw poo, so that might be a toss up).

It is my understanding, all things considered, nicotine is not that much worse for you than caffeine. The really bad part about nicotine is the transport – tobacco smoke filled with crap. It is the tobacco smoking I wish to stop doing – not so much the nicotine. I like nicotine. My brain likes nicotine. I don’t want to stop smoking because of this. This is what made me want to consider the e-cigarette as an option.

The e-cigarette concept appeals to me for several reasons. It will not have the health factors in tobacco smoking, it won’t have the smell, and dammit, this is the 21st century. I never got my flying car, I don’t have a job making Space Sprockets, and my dog is no closer to saying “ruh-row” than I am to having a vacation on the moon. I demand my better living through technology!

The first e-cigarette I ran across was “blu“. It is a nicely marketed device with a fairly low buy-in cost (well below the cost of a carton of cigarettes in my area). I was very close to ordering a starter kit but learned there can be some problems getting these across the Canadian border. It is my understanding e-cigarettes devices are not illegal in Canada, only selling “ready to use” cartridges containing nicotine is the illegal part – or something like that.

Drat. Hard to get products.

I passed on the idea and went back to regular cigarettes.

Last week I remembered about the electronic gizmos and decided to give them another look. I dug around on the Internet and discovered a site called e-cigarette-forum.com. Wow. Talk about information overload! 7,700 active members and over a million posts on the subject of e-cigarettes and “vaping”.

Aside: Vaping is the term used by users of e-cigarettes instead of calling it “smoking”. You are vapourizing the liquid – hence vaping. This is NOT to be confused with “vapping” which is slang for female masturbation.

I dove into e-cigarette-forum.com head first and was instantly overwhelmed. There are ton of devices, slang, and a plethora of terms – things I felt I had to learn before I could make an educated decision if I wanted to get involved in e-cigarettes.  Further that, what device should I order? Every other person on the forum is saying one device is better than the other. Past that, could I order something in Canada with nicotine?

As it turns out we in Canada can easily get the hardware from companies located in Canada. We can order branded, ready to use devices (much like the Blu e-cigarette) or more generic devices. We can order nicotine free cartridges (why?) or we can order empty cartridges and fill them at home with e-juice containing nicotine. We can order nicotine enriched e-juice locally.

Yes! I’m going to do it! I have to try this thing.

Now. Which device?

After hours on the forum and reading many, many reviews on various types of hardware, I ordered a Joye 510 device and a complete starter kit which included several batteries, 2 atomizers, a pack of empty cartridges, charger, a USB thing, an e-cigarette holder which also charges the battery as well as some other stuff. My decision to go with the 510 was based on many people saying “I wish I had ordered a 510 before I wasted money on other X device”. I get the impression it is a good entry-level introduction to e-smoking.

From another company I ordered my e-juice – two kinds. One propylene glycol (PG) based juice and a newer vegetable glycerin (VG) based juice. Each kind contains a mid-level amount of nicotine. I decided on trying both the PG and VG based liquids just to try them out. Both are tobacco flavoured. I’m sure they won’t taste quite like tobacco but this is a good place to start.

So that is where I am so far.

I ordered the products from the following companies.

www.electronic-cigz.com – This is the company I ordered the liquid from. So far they have been friendly and helpful.

www.happyvaper.com – The company I ordered the Happy 510 Kit and Kaboodle Starter Kit. As well, this company has been great to deal with so far.

As e-cigarettes are still pretty cutting edge, I decided to document my experience. In the following weeks I’ll make new entries giving my first impressions, how the device holds up to general use, and anything else I can think to comment on. I might even make a video or two. How about one of me taking my first e-smoke? That might be fun.