Introduction

This blog is focused on the topic of e-cigarettes which is a topic being discussed by the Canadian society at this point in time. E-cigarettes regulations and health related issues are still being researched by professionals in order to find proper laws that will suit the matter. In the past few years, E-cigarettes have become popular among the smokers in society and also for non-smokers. They are being advertised through television commercials, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, and other sources of mass media all over Europe and the United States. Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio are celebrities in the movie industry are a few of many celebrities that advertised electric cigarette smoking which they later on embedded as a part of their life styles.

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I have chosen this topic out of interest for e-cigarettes since I myself enjoy the existence of the product. At first when I started smoking e-cigarettes there were only the disposable electric cigarettes available in the market which are the ones demonstrated in the pictures above. As the market grew for the electric cigarette industry, more and more innovations were made to satisfy this new massively growing industry. At first this industry was targeting smokers by providing them with an alternative to smoking which helped many quit smoking. A while after the product became more popular among the public, it became more of a trend that people have followed for “style” and “class.”

How E-Cigs with Cartridges Operate

The link http://www.greensmoke.com/ecig-info/how-electronic-cigarettes-work.html provides a prototype model that demonstrates how the e-cigarettes with cartridges operate. These type of e-cigarettes were the first to reach the market and were the first to demonstrate the potential of an e-cigarette. The model consist of a battery which is the source of power that operates it, at the end of the battery there is an LED light that indicates whether or not the cigarette is functioning properly. The model also consists of a cartridge which contains the flavour of choice for the e-cigarette. A short video below demonstrates how an electric cigarette with a cartomizer works.

This e-cigarette model has multiple batteries of choice that the users may prefer depending on their locations. The first battery is the basic battery which is the standard battery for the user to use anywhere when charged. The second battery is a long-lasting battery which lasts longer than the standard battery which is also portable for the user to use anywhere if charged. The final battery is a battery that has a USB attached to its LED light where the user can only connect it to a computer or laptop which is useful when the users are at home or are using a computer or laptop while they are smoking.

When inhaling the LED light is switched on but when the e-cigarette is not in use, the LED light is turned off. The LED light also is switched off when the battery is out of charge or whether it is dysfunctional.

The last but the most important part of this e-cigarette model is the cartridge. The cartridge is where the flavour of the e-cigarette is contained. One cartridge lasts as long as a pack of 20 cigarettes. The user may choose any cartridge with the flavour of choice to use with the e-cigarette. Different companies contain unique flavour choices and percentage of nicotine available. http://www.greensmoke.com/e-cig-cartridges/flavormax-cartridges.html shows the flavours this company provides when the user decides to purchase a cartridge with different nicotine percentages. I have provided an image using the snipping tool from the website provided to show the flavours and percentages of nicotine that the company offers.

How E-Cigs with Atomizers Operate

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The image above is a prototype model that demonstrates how the e-cigarettes with atomizers operate. These types of electronic cigarettes were the innovations to the original cartomizers and is now become more and more popular around the globe. The model is similar to the cartomizer with a few modifications to the atomizer that replaces the cartomizer. The model consists of a battery which is the source of power with longer life-span than the cartomizer, the LED light is usually in the center of the battery around a button that initiates the cigarette, and the button in the center of the batter enables the e-cigarette battery to send voltage to the atomizer to activate the inhaling. The model also consists of an atomizer which contains a flavour liquid that the user can refill which is part of the mouth piece. In the pictures bellow there are a few types of batteries and mouthpieces being display.

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E-cigarettes with atomizers contain many different batteries that the user may purchase and attach to the atomizer and many different atomizer pieces. The atomizer and the batteries are a huge market in the electronic cigarette industry, the amount of atomizers and batteries are constantly increasing due to demand and competition. E-cigarettes with atomizers started a new industry of competition with the nicotine flavoured liquid that is required in order to operate the atomizer based electronic cigarettes.

Pros

Here is a video from the tv-show “The Doctors” that give a little bit of an understanding of why the electric cigarettes are preferred to be used rather than the actual cigarettes themselves,



The doctor mentions that the dangers of cigarettes is really from the thousands of additional chemicals that are found within a cigarettes that are the primary cause of cancers caused from smoking. There are only a few chemicals in cigarettes that are identified that are very harmful to the human body and the other thousands of chemicals are unknown.

Other noticeable pros for electric cigarettes are the odours, less coughing, no breathing problems, and no headaches. When smoking an electronic cigarettes whether it is a cartomizer or an atomizer, the odour that a smoker acquires from the actual cigarettes is not found in an e-cigarette smoker. The odours from electric cigarettes are flavoured and do not stick to the user. When a smoker substitutes cigarettes with the electronic cigarettes, the user will start coughing less if not stop coughing from smoking in general. The user will clear all the mucus caused from smoking regular cigarettes as if he stopped smoking when the user decides to substitute the cigarettes with electronic cigarettes. The user’s throat will act as if he or she quit smoking and the headaches that a smoker gets from smoking will be dramatically be reduced if not removed all together.

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Electronic cigarettes also introduced an act of smoking without smoking the cigarettes that encourage help regular cigarette smokers to quit smoking. The patches and smoke-free gums have failed to motivate smokers into quitting smoking since they did not appeal to the act of smoking which in most cases is the most important aspect to help smokers quit smoking. The act of inhaling and exhaling and holding a cigarette is what the smokers need to quit smoking since those are part of the addictions of the smoking habits.

My father who is a heavy smoker tried the patches and gums that contain nicotine to quit smoking but he could not last longer than a few days without the act of smoking. The act of smoking from what I have noticed myself through my own experience and from witnessing the experience of my family and friends is what the smoker needs to continue in order to quit smoking. Even though the electronic cigarettes contain nicotine, the nicotine percentage is much lower than the regular cigarettes. Some may argue having an electronic cigarette may make the user smoke more often than he or she used to, the reality is even the highest percentage of nicotine given in some electronic cigarettes is still quarter the amount a cigarette contains not to mention the thousands of chemicals in regular cigarettes that an electronic cigarette does not contain.

E-Cigarettes Regulation

"Nicotine is a drug, and e-cigarettes containing nicotine are drug-delivery devices. Health Canada has always treated them as such, which makes Canada's laws governing these devices among the most restrictive in the world. Not all e-cigarettes contain nicotine, and selling non-nicotine e-cigarettes is legal in Canada. Some jurisdictions that currently allow e-cigarettes, such as the United Kingdom and the European Union, are planning to regulate them as drug. (1) However, in the United States, e-cigarettes have flourished in the virtual absence of regulatory controls."(go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca) 

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When the e-cigarettes were first introduced, it was not regulated. When e-cigarettes became more well known throughout Europe and America and slowly toward the rest of the world including Canada, some parts of the world remained unregulated while others started regulating the e-cigarettes including Canada. Canada did not regulate e-cigarettes at first since they were not widely used or investigated, once the fact was known that e-cigarettes contain nicotine which is a drug, Canada started regulating the e-cigarettes where people are not able to purchase e-cigarettes that contain nicotine. The nicotine-free electric cigarettes are the only electric cigarettes that Canada considers legal. In some parts of the world, electric cigarettes are not regulated since it is a substitute to smoking and does not harm the user as much as the regular cigarettes do.