Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Going digital...

After a fair amount of consideration and research, I placed an order tonight for my first electronic cigarette. That's right, I'm making the switch from analog cigarettes to digital smoking. This "personal vaporizer" is battery powered, takes nicotine laced inserts, and the second hand effect is nearly pure water vapor... According to the reviews at least. Nothing burns, so there's no smoke in the traditional sense. It has the added value of evading most state indoor smoking bans and FAA regulations as well.

Start up costs are a little steep at $135 for two battery packs, three varieties of charger, and five nicotine caps, but operation and maintenance cost appears to be minimal when compared to the increasing cost per pack of the real thing. If it proves to be an effective substitute and if it stays legal, the cost savings over the course of the year could be significant.

There is always the more intangible and unproven benifit of not ingesting the laundry list of things besides nicotine that analog cigarettes give off when burned. Sure, it's not as good as actually quitting, but since that doesn't seem likely to happen this would appear to be the next best alternative. Besides, most of the truly amazing toys in my life all plug in... Why not bring my dirty habits into the 21st century too, right?

You can believe there will be a more detailed review when the unit arrives.

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