My strong Italian mother did what she knew how to do best and instilled the fear of God in me, old school style. For this I am eternally grateful because I did not become a statistic.
The truth is that 20 percent of high school students and six percent of middle school students are smoking cigarettes. Today, tobacco is responsible for one in five deaths in the U.S. In my household, smoking will always be frowned upon and never even an option because health is everything.
With technology making anything possible, there is now a product that claims to be a “healthy version of smoking”. It sounded too good to be true, so I investigated, and in my opinion, it is.
I thought only in Hollyweird people walk around with battery-operated cigarettes, but I quickly realized that it was not a prop and people all over have become fans of this crazy contraption.
The Electronic Cigarette claims to be cheaper, healthier, more convenient, and even looks and feels realistic. It is run on a lithium battery that contains a nicotine cartridge and creates a vapor that looks exactly like smoke. There is no second-hand smoke and the smoker gets the hit of nicotine that they desire without the tar and tobacco; however, nicotine is an alkaloid that constitutes a portion of the dry weight in tobacco.
In an electronic cigarette, the nicotine is delivered by way of a vaporized propylene glycol/nicotine solution. To me, that sounds rather freakish and that is where my concern lies. The unanswered question is, what are the long-term effects of sucking on a lithium battery that still contains the addictive ingredient nicotine? There is an uber concentrated amount of nicotine to keep the smoker satisfied and thus becoming addictive. When the FDA tested the ingredients in two of the leading cigarette makers, they found toxic chemicals such as anti-freeze amongst other cancer-causing agents. This sounds like the lovechild of Einstein and a marketing genius. Just say no.
Until next time my friends, visit www.raylenebartolacci.com. To health and wellness, Salute.
