Electronic Cigarettes: The Revolutionary Smoking Alternative.
Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
by Richard Brennan
Every once in a blue moon a clever idea comes along that, though simple, can revolutionize the market place. The Electronic Cigarette is one such idea. To make a "safe cigarette" that has the look and feel of a real cigarette, gives the user a nicotine boost, contains none of the nasty chemicals found in real cigarettes, yet is so realistic you can blow smoke rings with it is nothing short of a revolution in smoking. And if all that is not enough the electronic cigarette has one extra blessing: people in the vicinity of an electronic cigarette smoker are not subjected to passive smoking.
So how is all this achieved? The electronic cigarette has three components:
1) A battery unit that looks like a cigarette without a filter tip.
2) An atomizer unit that attaches to the battery unit.
3) A replaceable cartridge, containing a vapourization chamber, that fits over the atomizer.
When assembled the atomizer is concealed within the battery/cartridge units and the whole thing looks like a filter tipped king size cigarette.
The battery unit contains a micro-circuit motion sensor that is activated when the user draws on the cigarette. When activated in this way the tip of the cigarette glows red, just like the real thing, and the atomizer unit is raised to a high temperature that atomizes a small amount of the cartridge contents that has been released into the vapourization chamber. This produces a vapour that looks like smoke.
The cartridge (filter tip) contains a fluid with three ingredients: water, nicotine and propylene glycol. Water requires no comment, the other two ingredients, however, may require some explanation.
Firstly nicotine: nicotine is the singular component of tobacco smoke that gives the smoker the instant gratification that he/she seeks. There are in fact over four thousand substances in tobacco smoke, many of them either carcinogenic (cancer causing) or harmful in other ways (e.g., lung, heart and arterial damage). These substances include benzene, tar, arsenic, and acetone. None of these harmful substances are present in the cartridge fluid of the electronic cigarette. Nicotine, which is present in the cartridge fluid is widely considered to be the least harmful component of tobacco smoke. As a matter of fact it is interesting to note that nicotine is present in many common foodstuffs, including tomatoes and tea.
Propylene glycol sounds like a nasty substance that might be found in a chemistry laboratory. But it only sounds like that. In fact one of the most common usages for propylene glycol is to produce artificial smoke in theatres and film sets. I have never heard of an actor or audience member being health compromised from breathing this substance, have you!
It is this artificial smoke, diluted with water vapour, that gives the final touch of authenticity to the electronic cigarette experience.
In conclusion, it can be argued with some authority that smoking the revolutionary high tech device known as the electronic cigarette will deliver positive health advantages, or at the very least, avoid the harmful effects of tobacco smoking, while still delivering the instant fix of nicotine that the smoker desires.
Richard Brennan is the webmaster, internet marketing consultant for: Cig-E'sElectronic Cigarettes
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