TAMPA, FL -- If you are looking to stop smoking, the electronic cigarette may be just what you need. But does it really work, and is it safe?
Martha Etzell was like many smokers, smoking up to a pack and a half a day, trying desperately to quit. Nothing worked until she says she found this, a tobacco free electronic cigarette.
"I've been looking for some how do to it. I've tried and tried. This has taken care of the hand to mouth action. It draws like a cig. You feel like you're really smoking a cigarette."
Crystal Thigpen sells a version of the electronic cigarette, called the Smoke Stick. "What happens is when someone draws on the cigarette, a red light comes on. The battery activates the atomizer which heats the nicotine cartridge inside. What you're breathing in is actually a harmless water vapor."
There's a variety of these electronic cigs available now both online and in local stores like this one in Town and Country.
Smoking expert Joseph Ditre, with Moffitt Cancer Center, says there are some pros to the electronic cigarette. "Pobably the biggest positive is they deliver nicotine without chemicals and cancer causing agents found in tobacco smoke."
But he warns, there are many unknowns. Ditre says, "There are several concerns. Number one, the safety of the product. Toxicity analyses haven't been conducted. The FDA is still looking into it. So, we really don't know what the effects are involving short term and long term use."
Crystal Thigpen responds to those concerns. "E-cigs don't fall under FDA regulations because they're not tobacco. It's just made of three components, water, propolyglycol and nicotine."
But nicotine is a stimulant. Ditre says, "That means it has powerful effects on your nervous system and cardiovascular system, raising heart rate and blood pressure ."
Customers can buy flavored filters without nicotine with the goal of kicking the habit once and for all. Martha says, "I'm down to the low nicotine. I will eventually go to the no nicotine.
For more information: http://www.bybybutts.com
Crystal Thigpen
(813) 244-9228
