Has Technology Solved the Smoking Dilemma?
Smoking has been a problem for decades and for some the health issues that have come with the tobacco cigarette have been devastating. For many years, science has struggled with a way for smokers to give up their cigarettes and live a healthier lifestyle. Finally, the technology has advanced to the electronic cigarette that eliminates many of the health problems associated with cigarette smoking.
The e-cigarette does not contain the dangerous chemicals that are found in traditional cigarettes. A tobacco cigarette has hundreds of these chemicals that can be harmful to the smoker as well as those around him or her. This has caused many people to become concerned with second hand smoke in restaurants and pubs and ultimately led to the smoking bans that are in effect today. The e-cigarette has the potential to change all of that with its innovative approach to smoking and nicotine delivery methods.
E-cigarettes are succeeding where nicotine delivery systems such as patches, gums and lozenges have failed. A smoker is more comfortable with the method of nicotine delivery in an electronic cigarette than they are with the other nicotine replacement products and this is likely the reason that they have not worked. The electronic cigarette mimics a real cigarette and satisfies the smoker’s deep psychological addiction to smoking. For some smokers it is this addiction that is the most difficult to overcome.
The addiction for a smoker extends to holding the cigarette in the hand, inhaling the nicotine and even the smoke that is emitted from a lit cigarette. An electronic cigarette does all of that and can help to work through those addictions instead of eliminating the habit completely.
This approach to nicotine delivery has helped some smokers quit using the device. This may not be the intent of the product, but it certainly has become the result for some smokers. An e-cigarette is not marketed as a stop smoking product and is not intended for that purpose. However, the fact that many have given up tobacco cigarettes completely cannot be ignored.
Technology certainly seems to have come through to resolve the smoking problem and help some people overcome a difficult addiction to nicotine and tobacco. The technology behind the e-cigarette consists of a battery, liquid nicotine cartridge and atomizer that emit the vapour or smoke. There has not been a nicotine replacement product on the market that has caught fire in the same way as the e-cigarette has among smokers. The patch was an innovative design for its time, but it does not have the same appeal to smokers who would never have tried to quit in the past.
The e-cigarette also addresses the social aspect of smoking. Many people enjoy smoking because it has been a part of their social lives for a number of years. It can be difficult to overcome these social habits and the e-cigarette is the perfect solution for this dilemma.
Does the e-cigarette help people quit smoking? Yes, for some smokers it has helped them to overcome their psychological addiction to cigarettes.