Vapers are ditching traditional cigarettes
Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn are all supposedly fans.
Milla Jovovich can be seen with one in an upcoming film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
Vaping has become a billion-dollar industry since e-cigarettes first hit the market in 2007.
Millions have given up tobacco cigarettes in favour of the battery-powered versions, and with good reason believes Bermudian vaper Sharieff Wales.
“I started vaping last March as a way to give up regular tobacco cigarettes,” said the former pack-a-day smoker. “I thought it was a healthier alternative.”
E-cigarettes come as a narrow, metal canister containing liquid nicotine. This liquid is gently heated to produce a vapour that is inhaled.
Among the benefits? E-cigarettes don’t give off second-hand smoke and, where a regular tobacco cigarette produces 7,000 chemicals when it is burned, e-cigarettes only produce nicotine.
According to Mr Wales, the vapour from e-cigarettes is also easier on the lungs than smoking regular cigarettes.
He feels he’s now breathing easier and sleeping better than he did while on cigarettes.
“I find there are times during the day when I would smoke a lot less or puff on it a lot less than I did when I smoked cigarettes,” said Mr Wales. “If I am out working — I do security in nightclubs — I tend to puff on it a little. It is nicotine, so when I feel the urge I will do it. When I wake up I don’t feel the need to have a morning vape the way I had a morning cigarette.”
Vape shops have sprung up in all major cities in the US and there are even vaping parlours where you can hang with other vapers.
While most tobacco cigarettes look pretty much the same, e-cigarettes come in a range of styles and colours. You can buy an e-cigarette that looks like a real cigarette with a glowing tip, but there are other versions such as sleek metal cylinders, colourful e-cigarettes and even some shaped like hookahs. Some e-cigarettes produce clouds of coloured vapour while others produce nothing visible at all.
The vapour also comes in different flavours such as tobacco, coconut, grape, bubblegum and vanilla.
“Whatever style you can think of, they make,” said Andrew Pratt, one of around 100 vapers on the Island.
He said he’d tried the nicotine patch and found it didn’t help him to give up tobacco cigarettes.
“I enjoyed a cigarette even though I knew they weren’t good for me,” he said. “I enjoyed the feeling of smoke. I tried this, and I haven’t picked up a real cigarette since my first battery was charged. I feel better.”
Fellow vaper Kelley Holmes agreed: “It’s really nice to wake up in the morning not coughing up a lung, that’s for sure. I don’t get quite so winded after climbing the stairs; I can take a full deep breath. Also, they don’t stink like cigarettes.”
Vaping caught alight but was quickly doused in Bermuda.
Government installed new regulations in July requiring all vapers to get a prescription from their doctor before importing the liquid nicotine.
Sharieff Wales, Andrew Pratt and other vapers would like to see those restrictions relaxed so that vaping can be enjoyed here as easily as it is in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Vaping has become a billion-dollar industry since e-cigarettes first hit the market in 2007. Millions of smokers now favour the battery-powered versions.
One of the advantages of e-cigarettes over tobacco cigarettes is that they can be cheaper. Low-end e-cigarette starter kits run from $10 to $60.
“Once you get your initial kit then it works out to be about $50 to $60 a month on nicotine liquid,” said Mr Pratt. “The average person who smokes a pack a day is probably spending about $280 a month or more on cigarettes.”
Mr Pratt said he had considered starting his own vape shop in Bermuda until the July importation edict shut the idea down.
Until then, there were a number of shops in Bermuda that sold e-cigarettes and the liquid nicotine, but they have been told that once their supply runs out they cannot import any more.
There have been a number of criticisms of e-cigarettes. Buyers are supposed to be at least 18, but it’s been argued that flavours such as bubblegum, attract children. New York City recently installed an ordinance banning flavoured liquid nicotine after several children died after ingesting it.
See the Facebook page Bermuda Vapers.
