Nine interesting facts about electronic cigarettes

An electronic cigarette doesn’t contain tobacco. Instead, it’s a plastic device which is activated by the user inhaling. The device then injects tiny drops of nicotine into the flowing air, causing them to vaporise. The device also adds propylene glycol, a moisturizer that’s often found in toothpastes and mouthwashes. This helps create a simulation of the smoke from a traditional cigarette, making it feel much more like real smoking.

Electronic cigarettes are not proven to help people give up smoking and aren’t marketed for this purpose. However, manufacturers can produce a range of electronic cigarettes with varying levels of nicotine. This means people trying to cut down on a nicotine addiction can gradually reduce the levels they consume without being held back by the habit of ‘lighting up’ a certain number of times each day.

A single electronic cigarette can last practically forever as the nicotine solution comes in a disposable cartridge (which usually last for several hundred drags). The mechanism is powered by a rechargeable battery, which also powers an orange LED at the tip to simulate a real burning cigarette.

An electronic cigarette doesn’t produce any smell, and the ‘smoke’ it produces is harmless vapour (besides the nicotine the smoker inhales) and doesn’t irritate the eyes. This means a smoker using the device can take part in normal social activities without engendering or irritating other people. There’s also no unpleasant waste from cigarette butts.

Electronic cigarettes are available in traditional tobacco flavour, but also in menthol and apple versions.

Smokers in the United Kingdom have used the device to get round bans on smoking in enclosed public places. The famous Chinawhite nightclub in Soho allowed its guests to use an electronic cigarette rather than go out on to the street for a traditional smoke.

The Daily Mail tested the device in 2007 on bar-goers in Notting Hill. One woman said “I miss not being able to drink and smoke on a night out. This is a good solution. It's elegant and easy to hold and it doesn't make your hands smell like a cigarette does.” And her male companion added “I think it could become popular. Smokers would do anything to have a cigarette at a table rather than go outside.” The pair later shot to ‘fame’ as Big Brother contestants Rex Newmark & Nicole Cammack!

Using an electronic cigarette can be considerably cheaper than smoking the real thing. A single cartridge gives roughly the same amount of ‘smoking’ as a standard packet of cigarettes but can be as much as six times less expensive. That’s partly because you don’t have to pay for all the tar, tobacco and paper which you normally buy and then literally send up in smoke!

While containing fewer harmful substances, the nicotine content of electronic cigarettes means they are not sold to children. It’s also recommended that pregnant women do not use the device, and that anyone with health concerns checks with a doctor first.