Can You Actually Quit Smoking with E-Cigs?

There has been a lot of talk around vaping recently. The rise of the electronic cigarette has been rather impressive with e-cigs popping up everywhere from the local pub to big super markets. It’s been no stranger to controversy either, there have been studies for it and against it, there’s support for it but also a lot of hate.

There is a hotly contested topic that seems to eclipse the others though:

Is vaping quitting smoking?

Well no it isn’t if you want the official word on it; electronic cigarettes cannot be marketed as a smoking cessation aid or product, or as a nicotine delivery system as they have not been fully tested for their long term effects. Ok.

There are on the internet quite a lot of blogs, webpages and forums dedicated to electronic cigarettes and they have been popping up like mushrooms after the rain. People there are seemingly fanatical about their e-cig, and e-liquids and mods or modifications and all things vaping, and there’s certainly no shortage of people who will happily claim to have stopped smoking and instead only vape. You’ll also find quite a few testimonials like that on the webpages of electronic cigarette vendors too.

Is this the truth, is vaping another way of quitting or are e-cigs just another way of smoking albeit without the negative effects (so far)?

We have compiled a list of things that become a mainstay in a smoker’s life either early on and get progressively worse.

Things that mysteriously disappear when you stop smoking, and seem to drastically improve if you make the switch between smoking and vaping. Let’s see…

1. Smoker’s Health – Or Lack Thereof. Regaining Sense of Fitness, Taste & Smell for the Most Part.

One of the first things you notice when start smoking is getting a bit breathless at the top of the stairs or after running to catch the last train. A few other things start going a bit wrong too, it’s quite subtle and you often don’t notice this for quite a while.

Your taste buds go a little bit dull, your sense of smell starts to go down a bit and sometimes sleep might not be as fulfilling.

If you become a smoker like so many do, don’t expect to win any races any time soon either. Did I mention the habitual wheeze and chesty cough you develop? Oh and of course coughing up some rather horrible stuff throughout the day…

These ailments start to fall away almost as soon as you quit smoking and you begin notice what you were missing, smells, flavours the utter stink of tobacco smoke and ash… Switching to vaping from smoking brings you pretty close albeit without the anger, stress and anxiety of withdrawal symptoms that follow quitting smoking.

2. Drinking Indoors Again, Socialising Is Possible Without Gassing Friends & Family

When you’re a smoker and especially in this day and age there is sooner or later that moment when you have to pop outside, whether it’s the pub, a nice restaurant or even home, for a quick ciggie.

In the cold. And the rain.

Sometimes there’s an outdoor smoking section in a club or bar, and it’s more often than not bursting at the seams with people having a smoke all night.

During that time, if you’re out with friends you’ve probably lost the thread of conversation unless they’re smokers and come out with you, or if you had your eye on someone across the dance floor who is no longer anywhere to be seen when you return. You may also end up with a drink over your clothes or shoes because everyone is so squashed in smoking areas that accidents are only too easy.

If you smoke in front of friends and family who don’t, especially in a closed area or room the chances are that protests and complaints until any sense of ‘pleasure’ that could have been derived from that cigarette is extinguished long before the ciggie itself.

Most (though not all so ask first!) establishments allow if not enthusiastically welcome electronic cigarettes , use of e-cigs indoors is allowed by law so a vaper can happily continue to buy drinks, or food and make the place look fuller and more exciting than if they were standing outside making noise or getting jostled and cold or wet.

3. You No longer Smell Like an Ashtray, Neither Do Your Clothes. No More Tar/Nicotine Coloured Wallpaper

One of the more unattractive things about smoking is that heavy smell that stays on you and your clothes for days on end.

It’s like carrying a pestilence, especially in the anti-smoking times we live in.

The nose wrinkling smell that makes spouses and significant others complain and give you the Look (the one that says “I know you’ve been smoking and telling me you haven’t, you smell like an ashtray and that chewing gum/mint/beer is a pathetic attempt to cover the uncoverable” or a variation on that theme), particularly now that smoking is as popular as a fart in a spacesuit.

The colour your walls tend to take on, especially if they were originally white or crème or off-white etc. is also disconcerting. It’s not immediately obvious until you look at the corners of the ceiling; the wall may look white enough on its own but those corners will almost fluorescent white by comparison especially in the light. Not very attractive is it?

The vapour from an electronic cigarette is exactly that, vapour. It’s colourless so your wallpaper is quite safe from staining, it’s largely odourless and only very heavy vapers who use certain brands of e-liquid will notice any residual smell at all. Any smell from e-liquid is mild and dissipates almost as fast as the vapour itself.

4. Your Pocket is Definitely Feeling a Lot Fuller, No More Spending up to £9 on a Pack of Cigarettes

No one likes spending a lot of money especially when it seems to just fall into a large pit of nothingness. Most smokers, at one time myself included, won’t notice until some do-gooder points it out, some of them may even go so far as to add up your smoking expenses for you.

Then the smoker sometimes stops and thinks:

"A 20 pack of cigarettes costs between £6 and £9 which means a packet-a-day habit can cost an average of approximately £50 a week."

Then you see the monthly and the yearly and it might make you start wondering about it.

The sum of £50 can quite easily net you all the essentials including the kit, necessary accessories and of course the e-liquid to get you started in style. In fact at that price you can get a rather snazzy electronic cigarette premium kit and stays in your pocket for the duration rather than going up in ash and smoke.

5. You’re Vaping Instead, E-Cigs Are A Different World

The first thing you might notice if you’re not one of the few people who just don’t gel with vaping is that you won’t smoke cigarettes nearly as much if at all. It’s not unusual to see an e-cig user cut down drastically on their tobacco intake if not stop altogether and happily carry on vaping. Being able to regulate the nicotine levels in your e-liquid is a bonus too.

The law states that electronic cigarettes cannot be advertised as a smoking cessation aid.

That is what nicotine patches and inhalers are for, apparently.

I won’t call e-cigs a way to quit smoking but I will call them an alternative way to smoke, without inhaling 7000 chemicals and subjecting yourself and everyone around you to the frankly rather smelly fumes of a cigarette and a most likely nasty end.

Hanging around indoors vaping in the warm instead of standing outside and getting soaking wet is a definite bonus, as is the return of most, if not all of your sense of smell and rebirth of your taste buds.

If you put some effort into getting moderately fit too, you’ll be able to run and walk without needing a break every few steps and wheezing, maybe even take up a healthy fitness activity and possible win a few races after all.

Now then, is vaping quitting smoking? All indications point toward that, but then the official bodies haven’t weighed in fully one way or the other.

Is it like quitting smoking? Well, I think that’s up to you to decide.