Smokeless Cigarettes – NJOY
So a company in South Africa operating from this website has started distributing a product called NJOY, a so-called “healthy alternative” to cigarettes and tobacco products.
It’s basically an electronic aromatiser that creates a vapour containing some scents, tastes and a little nicotine to give you the feel and look of smoking a real cigarette. There’s even a light at the front to mimic the cherry.
The benefits of course include the fact that there is no actual tobacco, no “smoke” for your friends and/or baby and you can conveniently sit in your office and smoke inside. Your boss is sure to love that, smoke or no smoke – but it’s still listed as a benefit on the website.
As a recent ex-smoker (170 days today) I think it’s a novel idea and I even looked into myself when trying to quit. The problem of course is the nasty little chemical called nicotine.
As one of the most addictive substances known to man (put it up there with cocaine and methamphetamines), it affects you physically and emotionally. It is a powerful stimulant (or sedative, depending on the person) that raises your heart rate and blood pressure and due to it’s very short half-life (60 minutes) you also require regular doses.
Smoking is still legal, I accept that, and I fully support all of the efforts to educate people including the ban on advertising and the warning labels. But what gets to me is that this product can be freely advertised anywhere it seems (including pages on Facebook) without anyone batting an eyelid.
I’ve been engaging the Facebook user that created the page (representative of the company, nameless for now) who is claiming on their behalf that the product improves health by the reasoning that people are quitting smoking and removing all of the other BAD chemicals. I like that, but just in case you were wondering, here are the health risks of nicotine which they are not sharing with you.
Increased heartbeat
Increased blood pressure
Dumping of glucose stores (not good for diabetics I’m sure)
Hyperglycaemia
Increase LDL levels (bad cholesterol)
For those very reasons, nicotine alone can be a cause of heart attack and/or stroke.
If you really want to quit, you need to quit and not keep the actual addictive substance in your body, it just means that you are leaving yourself a door open to fail. Fake cigarette to real cigarette does not seem as bad as no cigarette to real cigarette.
Here’s one last statistic, the nicotine patch (and gum) has a very low success rate – so this product will undoubtably follow that trend.
Sources here
The NJoy and similar cigarettes are not intended to help people quit smoking, and NJoy, at least, specifically states this in their materials.
They are intended for people, like me, who intend to _keep_ using nicotine, but who would prefer to do without the tar, stains, smell, smoke, ashes, and non-nicotine-related health problems, or for people who would like to be able to have a nic-fix in venues where cigarette smoking is not allowed – and who are not satisfied by using products like nicotine lozenges, patches, gum, etc. (which _are_ intended to help you quit smoking).
There are reasons (other than pleasure) that someone might choose to use nicotine, on purpose.
Some years ago, I suffered a brain injury (ha ha) that left me with great difficulty focusing or concentrating. I could not afford medical treatment, and even if I could have afforded medications, long-term, that help with attention, focus, and memory, in my case they all had much worse side-effects than nicotine (and most are stimulants that do the same things to heart-rate, etc. as nicotine, only moreso).
Since starting smoking, I found that it was actually helpful to me in many ways, even if there are aspects of it I dislike. It helps me concentrate. It encourages me to take breaks during work, which actually improves my work. If I am angry at someone or something, the small serotonin-dump from a cigarette often helps me clear my head and remember how to be reasonable.
Also, I have an autoinflammatory disease – my body’s immune system occasionally decides it’s own tissues need to be chewed on. Nicotine actually reduces or prevents those flare-ups, without me having to resort to complicated, expensive, and often ineffective medications which can have severe side effects. It’s nice to not have the skin on my face fall off every few months, or the lining of my intestines.
In any case, the point is that these “smokeless cigarette” products are not intended for people who are trying to quit.
It says, in the advertising materials, on the box for the device, on the packaging for the nicotine cartridges, and in the instructions, that the device is not a smoking cessation product, and should not be used as such. There is absolutely nothing about it that ever gave me, even briefly, the impression that it was a smoking cessation product, or I would not have purchased it. I don’t want to quit smoking. I just want to stop coughing in the mornings and smelling like an ashtray.
Coyote, nice post, how about fighting with the FDA over it now
http://gizmodo.com/5320734/fda-deems-e%20cigs-as-bad-as-the-real-thing
I have been using njoy for just over a month now and can tell you that I havent had a cigarette in all this time! I dont cough anymore and feel great. Dont understand what all the fuss is about. it contains no tobacco and no smoke. Its 1000 times healthier than cigarettes and Im surprised some people dont see that. as for the fda, here is a reply for you from njoy themselves.
http://www.njoythefreedom.com/press.php
The FDA is owned by Big Tobacco. Phillip Morris has more than enough money to keep the FDA in their place. Electronic cigarettes are a much safer alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes, yet the FDA wants to ban them. Theres no Tar, no Second Hand Smoke, no Yellow Teeth, Fingers Or Walls, no Risk Of Fire Accidents, no Cigarette Butts Or Ashes, blah blah blah. The list just goes on…Yet the FDA wants to ban them and keet tobacco cigarettes legal?? WTF, The FDA is Big Tobacco’s pet..
Johnny Blaze
I’m happy that this product can help someone quit smoking – what I don’t like is that the marketing departments are trying to make people believe that this is “healthy” when it is clearly not.
The effects of nicotine are known and this product contains nicotine – so make your decision based on that.
I think the best way to quit is to quit abruptly and not gradually. There is an ongoing debate about the nicotine concentrate some of these smokeless cigars have.
Smokeless Cigar´s last blog ..The FDA & E-Cigarettes
Quitting abruptly worked for me, althought it did take a few tries. The first week or so is absolutely awful. I found that starting an exercise and diet regime made quitting much easier.
Electric Cigarette´s last blog ..Cigarette Tar Experiment
Cold turkey did not work for me any of the three times i tried although i do agree that working out and eating healthy does help tremendously
I have tried to quit smoking specially since me and my wife are having a baby but its really hard to so I tried looking for ways to minimize the effect of my smoking to the people around me second hand smoke kills or gets people sick than actually smoking so this smokeless cigarettes is really good it will help… do you have tips to how to quit smoking I have tried everything but nothing seems to work for me
bjorn
I´m “smoking” electronic cigaretts now for quite some time and I´m totally satisfied with it. Of course it´s much healthier than traditional smoking but by far not healthy, this is an important point I think!
Benjamin Huebner´s last blog ..Electronic 2 Part Cigarettes from Green Smoke
We don’t want to quit smoking just yet; we just want to be a little healthier regards it, for now, and cause less health threats to those around us too. We have recently started smoking electronic cigarettes and are enjoying them.
Terry and Tony´s last blog ..11 days smoking e cigarettes lung buddy in East London
Apparently folks addicted to electronic cigarettes can’t read your great article. Electronic cigarettes are bad for your health, and if you want to live HEALTHIER, quiting is a good thing. :
Increased heartbeat
Increased blood pressure
Dumping of glucose stores (not good for diabetics I’m sure)
Hyperglycaemia
Increase LDL levels (bad cholesterol)
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An electronic cigarette, e-cigarette or personal vaporizer, is a battery-powered device that provides inhaled doses of nicotine or non-nicotine vaporized solution. It is an alternative to smoked tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. In addition to purported nicotine delivery, this vapor also provides a flavor and physical sensation similar to that of inhaled tobacco smoke, while no smoke or combustion is actually involved in its operation.
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It doesnt matter what you do in life, someone is gonna have a problem with it.Its still america right, at least for a while longer…lol Happy smoking whatever it is.
Electronic cigarettes are a good alternative. You need to do your research and separate the good from the bad. I can’t imagine being able to quit without them. just because NJOY isn’t great, doesn’t mean one of the dozens others are.
I keep reading on here that people are saying that any e-cigs are not healthy and should be banned and going cold turkey is better. i wonder how many of them have accually been addicted to something as strong as nicotine, and caffine is nothing compared to that not even by 1 percent. they ARE healthier by ALOT.you cant get cancer,emphezima,or copd from them. believe it or not eating burger king or mcdonalds 3 times a week is more unhealthy than using NJOY or any other e cig beacuse with bad dieting you can get all types of cancers plus diabeties or be overweight. which 75% of all americans do and are. so before we get all bent out of shape and hate the e cig they will in the future save more lives than they hinder. no one said they were healthy they are just healthier. ps there are over 100 bad additives in real cigs njust 1 in e cig