A couple of days ago I linked to BBC News website about a new product, Electronic cigarettes. Not only did I link, but I splurged and bought a starter-kit and some refill cartridges.
The principle is that this is an alternative to smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products. It aims to deliver nicotine (which is nice, and addictive, and broadly speaking about as harmful as caffeine) without the unfortunate side-effects of tobacco, which as well as being carcinogenic is also smelly, tends to annoy certain parts of the population almost as much as exhaust fumes annoy me, discolours soft furnishings and wardrobed clothes, and can lead to unfortunate conflagrations in waste-paper bins, clothes and beds.And most pertinently is now banned in workplaces and enclosed public buildings etc
Assume that I smoke about 40 a day. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. But say 40. In monetary terms, suppose I were to buy leading brand cigarettes on a packet-by-packet basis from legal sources in the UK that would be about £12 a day or £350 a month. Except that my expenditure is nothing like that, as a result of legitimate purchases overseas, cheap Bulgarian and Lithuanian-sourced cigarettes being easily available if you know where, the fact than some less-than-leading brands are nicer and cheaper, and the perennial money-saver, the rollie.
The starter kit arrived about an hour and a half ago and I took delivery of my Electronic Cigarette. To my surprise,the battery didn't even need charging, so I was able to start straight away. So far, I haven't had a cigarette but have been sucking away on the E-Cig.
Nevertheless, twice I have had a reflex action to reach for a packet of real cigarettes and - interestingly - a lighter. Obviously, it's impossible to tell at this point whether the thing really is effective. I suspect its use will be when not only is it not permitted to smoke but it's not possible to go outside - I think mainly of plane or train journeys, but there are numerous work - or leisure - situations where you can't escape at a time that suits. It may not be so satisfying on waking up, or post-orgasm, or after a meal. We shall see.
I think a big issue is other people's attitudes. Not so much at work, but in restaurants etc where it's almost inevitable that someone will object. I will be torn between explaining politely; or laughing contemptuously at them and suggesting that their objection to such a thing makes a mockery of their imagined objection to cigarettes - if they can't sense the difference between a smokeless odourless thing that produces less vapour than a hot beverage and a cigarette maybe it's all in their mind to start with. I certainly don't want to get in to rows with fellow customers, but also I don't want to be trying to explain to a jobsworth that I am not smoking, I am not breaking the law etc. And, I guess, on aeroplanes, the common sense approach would be not to use it at the times when laptops and 'other electronic devices' are forbidden. And just in case, carry a print-out of the BBC news article that states they're legal to smoke indoors. Although I am sure that, very soon, they will become widespread and commonplace.
I shall report more from time to time. So far, I would say, you don't quite get the hit of the taste hitting the throat, and my hands are reaching out for a fag. I don't think I have suddenly given up smoking cigarettes.
