Earlier on today I tried to persuade any smokers to try an e-cigarette, now I’d like to show you how to use an e-cigarette, and introduce you an e-cigarettes sale site, Best4Cigs. It is so affordable, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give it a go.
Farewell to Cigarettes
It’s about time. Shops are making it more difficult for you to buy cigarettes year on year. As we all know, all the shops in the UK have to hide tobacco products in the closed cupboard behind the counter. Look around in any supermarket – there’s one ugly part, that’s the shutter behind the customer service counter. A big, plain shuttered cupboard, reluctantly sits there for smokers to come and get the “stuff” from it.
I decided to write this article because my husband had trouble buying a packet from a Waitrose counter this morning. He asked for a packet of “Red John Player Special”. The Waitrose assistant said to him “What is that? I’m not sure if we’ve got it, and I don’t know whereabout (in the cupboard behind him) it is”
So my husband asked him to open the shutter, it’s a red package, he could find it from over the counter and point at it. The assistant refused because they were not allowed to open it just to show the contents to their customer. The shop supervisor was called, and she explained it. The tobacco cupboard is storage, not a display unit, therefore they can only open it swiftly to get the product out. Not for their customers to search and find the right product, even for a few seconds. Does that make sense?
He gave the Waitrose staff a mouthful, went to a newsagent nearby instead. He was, ahem, fuming about it so when we got home I checked the UK government regulations (as if nothing better to do)
“It is illegal to display tobacco products in shops except to people over the age of 18 in the limited circumstances” The regulation only refers to the prevention of teens from taking up smoking. OK maybe he looked underage to the Waitrose assistants (he’s 54)
Whereas Association of Convenience Stores’ guideline says;
Q: “What if a customer asks to see the full range of tobacco products before they buy them?”
A: It is not an offence to show a tobacco product to a person aged 18 or over who asks to buy a tobacco product, or who has asked for information about a tobacco product. This display is described in the legislation as a ‘requested display’. It is not an offence if other people in the shop (including children) see a tobacco product as a result of a ‘requested display’.
So this is confusing. They CAN let children see tobacco products. The Waitrose staff were wrong. Oh dear, we should write to them and complain. Ask for compensation!
Why am I wasting so much time in checking the tobacco law? Is it worth it? No. Shouldn’t we just quit smoking? Yes!
So we both first tried electric cigarettes a year ago, I’ve managed to quit smoking since but he couldn’t. He loves real cigarettes too much. While I can’t persuade my own stubborn partner to stick to the e-cigarette, I can only hope that if you are a smoker and haven’t tried it, just click the easy links below and give it a go. Say Farewell to tobaccos – they are far too old-fashioned!
Why E-Cigarettes Are Better
I’ve listed 10 good reasons to switch to e-cigarettes in my previous post. No poisonous tar, no smoke therefore no smell, stain or passive smoking. Better teeth, better for the environment, and you save a fortune.
Starter Kit
So this is what you should buy – a beginner’s kit. And this is what I was using. It has;
- Rechargeable battery (black or chrome in these images). Towards the top you see a circle – that’s the button you press & hold while you inhale it. It illuminates and, when the battery goes low it starts to flash. The battery lasts for 2-3 days, or more, depending on how often you smoke.
- A USB charger that you can charge via your computer
- USB mains charger – charges quicker
- Clearomizer – this clear compartment holds the e-liquid.
- 10ml bottle of e-liquid in flavour of your choice. Says approx 200 cigarettes, and I think that’s about right.
This particular style I think is the best one because some other e-cigarette models require to use an extra cartridge, and this one doesn’t. Simple – the bottom part is a battery, the top part is an inhaler.
E-Liquid Flavours
If you generally like experimenting flavours, this is heaven. When I used to drink, I loved all sorts of cocktails and my kitchen had enough liquor bottles to open a bar. So you can imagine how excited I was in the beginning. Apart from all these crazy fruits and cake ingredient flavours, there are normal tobacco flavours available.
I can only suggest that you pick one or two and try. Because I personally found Marlboro blend a bit boring. I loved the Tobacco blend the best. I liked menthol, but didn’t like mint. I liked chocolate, liked apple, realised I didn’t want to mix these flavours so I bought a spare clearomizer for each flavour, then got bored – wasted some money, but still cheaper than spending on real cigarettes!
Nicotine Strengths
I started the “High” strength, then lowered it to medium, low, then zero. I must admit I found “zero” a bit useless – it was just a slightly flavoured vapour. Again you may like it, and you can only try and see what it’s like for you.
How Long Do They Last?
The clearomizer and battery don’t last forever. Battery life will go shorter as you use, clearomizer will block at some point (within a year or so). So if you like the e-cigarette experience – I hope you will – I recommend you to buy a spare battery & clearomizer when you next order some more e-liquids.
You can buy an extra battery for £11.99, but I bought another set of the starter kit, kept one set of charger at home, the other set at work. So if the battery ran out in my office, I could pop it straight to the charger.
Hi Ray,
First time I seen those shutter things was in Thailand. I thought rather odd. Now it’s in the UK. Almost like they are criminalizing tobacco (all the while decriminalizing cannabis wtf!).
E-cigarettes are actually banned form Thailand! Not even allowed to import them!
They may be healthier, as a non smoker great less polluted air but not exactly all that healthy as it just another way of delivering nicotine.
Hi Derek,Thanks for your comment. Oh wow, it’s a surprise Thailand doesn’t even allow e-cigarettes. I’m interested to know the reason why – there must be a logical belief that e-cigs are more harmful than cigarettes in that country? Yes as you say, talking about decriminalising cannabis but with cigarettes now considered bad for health, there should be an e-cannabis inhaler (or is there already?)Ray
I like the learning about the information regarding e-cigs. I personally don’t use anything like this, but I know my husband does and he thought it was interesting to read too! Thank you for the information and thank you for making the website neat and easy to use! You are doing a great job because it seems like you know a lot of information about your topic. Keep it up!
Thanks for your comment, and thank you for the compliment! There are still a lot of smokers who actually don’t believe the benefit of e-cigarettes, or those who like to use them but don’t know which type. So I can only hope that they read this page and try the one I recommend… I have tried other types too and some others aren’t too bad either. You can only try it yourself and know the true benefit! Many thanks again.
I have never been a smoker, and I am glad that I was never tempted to start, as it seems as though they are making life particularly difficult for someone who smokes.
Well done on promoting the e-cigarette, as this is the way to go if you are looking at quitting. I still don’t imagine it will be easy to quit, but I am sure it does make the journey a little easier.
Hi Michel, thanks for your comment. It’s good you’ve never smoked or never been tempted. Cigarettes are awful thing…I started to smoke when I was 14 and it’s always been difficult to quit – because I never wanted to quit. With e-cigarettes I could still inhale vapour and, it’s not the same as nicotine patches or gums, it really was easier to quit real cigarettes. Thanks again for stopping by!
I have smoked e-cigarettes at past.
I can say that they are definetely better than usual cigarettes. But i can’t say that they aren’t 0 harmless. After smoking them for a while it made me cough and left a bitter taste on my throat. And also my lunge was kinda telling like “dude, why don’t you give a brake?”
Can you write an article about potential dangers off e-cigarettes? I would like it. Great review anyway!
Hi Tyler, thanks for your great comment and suggestion – as you say, e-cigarettes (or e-juices) do have a lot of chemicals, just not as much as real cigarettes, it is said. You only feel great because you’re no longer smoking tobaccos, not because of e cigarettes themselves.
Thanks for sharing your experiences too. I’ve found it very interesting. E-cigs don’t seem to give me coughs or bitter aftertaste, but they seem to make my mouth dry, I must admit.
Great idea about writing an article about the dangers of e-cigarettes, thank you. I will do a few researches and come back to this site with some results.
Thanks again,
Ray
I have got many friends who have been able to quit smoking with thanks to ecigarettes. So they do work, and I recommend them to everyone who are looking to cut down on smoking or either quit.
Ecigarettes are an Awesome invention, and if only they were around in the 80’s and 90’s, many people would be a lot healthier these days and even live longer.
I will definitely recommend this article to some of my “smoker” friends and family.
Neil
Hi Neil, thanks for your comment! Yes I think e-cigarettes are an awesome invention too. Nicotine patches existed in 1990’s, so it would have been nice if e-cigarrettes had been invented earlier. We were allowed to smoke in the offices, trains, buses and even in the aeroplanes in old days. It would have been very different had we been more health-conscious.
Ray
It always seems a bit extreme the way they have to have the shutters closed on the tobacco products. I know they are trying to stop teens from taking up smoking but it won’t make any difference. It’s not like they don’t see other people around them smoking every day – they’re not stupid!
I got a free sample of an E-cigarette a couple of years back when they first came out. I actually found it very harsh on the throat. I’m not sure if the smoke is supposed to be inhaled but it didn’t feel as if it was! Maybe it was just a low quality e-cig.
Great article anyway.
Hannah.
Hi Hannah,
Yes it’s always been illegal to sell cigarettes to underage in the UK anyway, there’s been an argument whether the shutter strategy really makes a difference or not. It’s interesting to see standards and regulations vary between countries, like Derek above says e-cigarettes are illegal in Thailand.
Where I originally come from (Japan), a cigarette vending machine was at every corner of the streets, so I was able to buy mine when I was 14. It was illegal for under 20 to smoke cigarettes, but ok to buy – children would go out and buy packets for their parents.
I’ve never thought e-cigarettes taste “harsh†myself. In fact milder, if anything, but that’s just my opinion…!
We used to be able to smoke in the cinema, can you believe it!?
Thanks again for your comments Hannah,
Ray
The e-cigarette is becoming a social trend, especially for ladies. But the same may not be in the case for male inhalers. I came across a number of male smokers were returning to smoking real cigarette after trying out e-cigarette for a while. This may have to do with the missing or lesser dose of nicotine in e-cig. Currently, there is probably no statistical data to prove that e-cig has effectively replaced normal tobacco cigarette.
Hi Fred, thanks for your comments – I genuinely hope that every smoker should at least try e-cigs, because of the good reasons that I’ve mentioned above. E-cigarettes are not for a social trend, and if anyone goes back to the tobacco cigarette wanting for more nicotine, then they’re missing the point.
Some people love to know whether there is a statistical data or not before they even try anything, I think that’s just a lazy excuse as far as I’m concerned! If it doesn’t help you quit smoking, at least it helps to promote stop-smoking campaigns. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Ray