Interesting stuff on the TV tomorrow

[Nozmo]

I'm sitting in a car showroom waiting for my car to be serviced so thought I would alleviate the boredom and post this.

Horizon is showing an hour long episode tomorrow night on BBC 2, investigating ecigs. Dr Michael Mosley took up vaping for a month, although he has never smoked in his life, and then studied the effects.

One of the facts discussed is that nicotine is virtually impossible to become addicted to unless it is delivered along with the specific cocktail of chemicals in tobacco smoke. Once you've become addicted via cigarettes you're addicted for life, but it would seem it's difficult to become a nicotine addict if you start off on ecigs...or any other form of nicotine ingestion.

Should make interesting watching. Here's the link to the background on the story. Available on BBC iplayer for those not in the UK.

bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-363...

[RoisinO1 Administrator 3 Years Smoke Free]

Hmmm interesting Nozmo , there is alot of publicity lately with e-cigs here in Ireland too, they are trying to bring in that GP's will be allowed to prescribe them to assist with patients that want / need to quit. Seemingly, the debate is it would take years and years of use to have any bad side effects that you would get from a cig, which would be minimal and we should be promoting them if it gets people off the dreadful cigs....

As you well know, I am not a fan of them ....my sister is on it since before Christmas and 2 friends, all 3 of them have had numerous chest infections since starting using them, sister has been at doctor every month (went on it after 1st chest infection as unable to smoke). Their GPs all advised that the e-cig is the cause of the reoccurring chest infections.

I live in a small town and unfortunately drugs is a serious issue. The lastest craze is to put cannabis into them and smoke away everywhere and anywhere, seen one using it at mass! We were all leaving it feeling very chilled out and had a bout of the munchies!

Joking aside though, I think they are a good idea but for short term use only.....

PS See plain packaging of smokes started yesterday in the UK, what you think, will it reduce smoking in young people?

[Nozmo Valued Contributor]

Yeah RoisinO1 , some people just can't take to them at all and have an adverse reaction to the PG in the liquid. And I agree, short term is definitely the best policy. They basically need to carry out more decent studies on them. There is a lot of utter rubbish out there and the press have been keen to report on the more sensational studies, without giving the true facts. One American study from last year, which was blown out of the water by the scientific community, comes to mind in particular. I hate seeing pseudo-science reported as the truth. Sorry, rant over

Your story about using them for cannabis made me laugh! You have to hand it to them for innovation!

Plain packaging...mmmm. I think it might have an effect. When they hid cigarettes away behind doors in shops I found it more shameful and awkward to buy them. Maybe this will add to that "shame factor" and make more people decide to try to quit? Smokers aren't very happy about it, I know that much!

[Hidden]

The only effect the plain packaging will have is to make it more difficult for the shop assistants to find the brand requested. In my years as a smoker I went from the expensive B&H, down to the cheaper Royals, then Windsor Blue, then Amber leaf Rollups - all based on price and had nowt to do with the packaging. I was going to smoke regardless of what the pack looked like. Because I was an addict.

I do like that they are getting rid of the packets of 10 - as a youth/child smoker I started on packs of 10 as I could afford them with my pocket money (and oh boy is that sentence depressing) ... hopefully as they will only be available in 20s that might put off another youngster from buying them.

I'm torn when it comes to e-cigs. I didn't take to them but I know of lots of people who have successfully quit using them. I don't like that people have just swapped rather than using them to quit - nicotine is still a harmful product. I don't like that my eldest son's friends have tried them - these are kids that don't smoke but wanted to try the fruity flavours! My son has witnessed my struggle and knows I would go mental if he tried them or took up smoking (and I can be quite the scary momma lol) so he told his friends they were mad (proud momma son not caving to peer pressure) and at least one has stopped using.

Finally I think they look ridiculous - creating huge clouds of vapour which whilst not as bad as huge clouds of cigarette smoke, still irritate me if I get too close. And funnily, everyone I've seen on the street creating these clouds looks slightly embarrassed and seem to try to hide the vape pen/stick/thing (whatever they're called these days).

[Nozmo Valued Contributor in reply to Hidden]

Didn't realise they were getting rid of packs of ten miscy...shows you how much notice I take these days...so that has to be a good thing from my point of view.

I think e-cigs are like marmite. Everyone has a strong opinion one way or the other. I just welcome more research on the health implications of them so we all get a true picture.

And I agree that they look daft. You can't imagine James Dean would have looked so damn cool with a vape pen hanging out of the side of his mouth. 🙂

[RoisinO1 Administrator 3 Years Smoke Free in reply to Nozmo]

Packets of 10 are years gone in Ireland, unfortunately, didn't make a blind bit of difference with me when I did smoke!

[Tracey3 1 Year Smoke Free]

This is most interesting indeed..... My little self will be watching, curious

Great post