What Will It Take To Get You To Quit?
By admin On January 5, 2010
Under Electronic Cigarette, Quit Smoking
What would it take to make you put the cigarette out?
For most people, Mom’s house is the place you go for a retreat. It’s the one place that feels different than anywhere else, and where you go to relive memories. When you leave Mom’s house, you leave with a heart full of love, head full of memories, and arms filled with bags of food. For me, I end up leaving my mother’s house with one extra not-so-appreciated gift – clothes reeking of smoke.
My mother has been a smoker for as long as I can remember. I believe she had a brief stint with quitting, but it didn’t last long. She also owns a home with a man who smokes. Whenever I’m over, I can instantly smell the scent of burnt tobacco when I walk in, and battle with being short of breath the entire time I stay. Even though personally I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, I’ve surely inhaled my share of toxic chemicals.
The danger of traditional tobacco cigarettes has been preached to no end over the years. The Surgeon General’s warning appears on the outside of cigarettes warning of their damaging, cancer causing effects. Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.
Yet, people still smoke. People smoke and inflict damage on themselves, as well as people that they love. Even with the introduction of patches and gum to assist in quitting, people just aren’t buying in and the ones that do continue to have a very low success rate. I’ve suggested several methods of quitting to my mother, but they just haven’t appealed to her. “I just like smoking,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not something I’d want to give up for a piece of gum.” I responded to her with a inquisitive “What will it take to get you to quit?” She responded, “I want to smoke. The end.”
A lot of the reason behind nicotine addiction is the act of smoking in itself. It’s the sensation of bringing the cigarette to your mouth, inhaling the smoke, and exhaling. It becomes a comfort for many smokers and is hard to let go of by switching to chewing gum or wearing a patch. You get your nicotine fix, but not the action of smoking.
Nicotine Gum and Nicotine Patches are available publicly in pharmacies and supermarkets across the United States. Ironically, the electronic cigarette is not. It’s had a very difficult time even becoming available to the United States as an option. It seems almost illogical, that a smokeless cigarette, that offers the same smoking sensation without the extreme dangers to its users and those around them wouldn’t be immediately praised and passed.
There is always a naysayer or two in the bunch, but when the people against a safer way of smoking are the people that are responsible for food safety and regulation, it gets a bit difficult. The FDA claimed that there were damaging chemicals found in electronic cigarettes as well as side effects (a statement that was later retracted due to inaccuracies).
Michael Siegel is a professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Boston University. He also has 20 years experience in Tobacco Control as a researcher. When asked about the safety of E-cigarettes he says: “I can’t say how safe the electronic cigarette is, but what I can say is that it is substantially safer than the conventional cigarette. Inhaling nicotine cannot be nearly as dangerous as inhaling nicotine plus thousands of other chemicals, including more than 40 carcinogens.”
When you’re a smoker looking to quit, it’s important to take into consideration what it is about smoking that gives you the biggest thrill. Again, for many, it’s the comfort of the action of smoking. So, when there’s a product that can ensure you get that same sensation without all of the dangerous chemicals, why not give it a shot?
If my mother would give the electronic cigarette a whirl, I’m sure I’d not only leave her house smiling, but be counting down the minutes until I went back. All while adding time to my lifeline by avoiding that second hand smoke.
This has been a guest post exclusively for The Safe Cig. Name withheld by request.
