Smoking Rooms or Lack There of

Technology continues to march on.  The iPad has changed how we use laptops, phones have changed how we work with the internet and flatscreens has changed how much room we need for our TVs but now it’s changed how we smoke!  I’m not a smoker but I have to say this new e-cigarette is very interesting.  I’m like you, I didn’t know that much about it but I saw Johnny Depp smoking one in the Tourist (see below) and I thought that was really cool. 

I thought it was so cool I looked into it.  With just a little research I found that e-cigarettes are odorless and the smoker only inhales nicotine as a water vapor.  The “smoke” that is exhaled is only water vapor so second hand smoke is supposed to be non-existent! 

I thought the cool factor went up even more so I continued to look into it, especially as society’s mood swings to restrict the areas that a smoker can enjoy their vice.  Apparently Charlie Sheen used one in Toronto where he could not smoke on stage so he got away with it by smoking an e-cig.  He still got booed.

Now you can get a ton of different brands, colors or flavors.  You can get a starter pack or order disposable.  The one thing you will have to change is your habit from lighting your cigarette to charging your cigarette.  But with out lighting anything up you could theoretically smoke in bed now without the fear of falling asleep and burning your house down… or our hotel ;-)

According to the research available the chemicals and tar are considerably less than a normal cigarette as in non existent.  Well except for the nicotine and that’s what most people smoke for anyways right?  Again I’m not a smoker but I think if your going to do it then do it in a more healthy fashion. 

Another plus is that there seems to be less restrictions of where you have to “smoke” these.  Apparently you can smoke these in some areas that have been restricted before such as restaurants, public areas, and in offices of some companies.  I could not find an actual place that boasted these claims but in several news clips they referenced this fact.

The other boast is that these cost considerably less than a cigarette habit.  In some cases (depending on where you live and what brand you smoke) you can cut the amount you pay by half.  That is huge for most people trying to scrape together every dollar they can in today’s economy.

This all sounds great so why doesn’t everyone switch?  Well as of January 2011 the FDA had not regulated these devices and the reason why is because they are a device and not a drug.  Or so the classification of the e-cigarette currently falls into.  Which as a device the FDA does not have strict parameters to go in and regulate production of this product.  I’m sure this will change shortly due to the rising popularity of this device.  After all there are 47 million possible users in the U.S. alone.