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Battery-powered Cigarettes?
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to Ananova, a Swiss company has developed a totally new type of smoke-free cigarette. You will be able to use it in non-smoking restaurants, and even in airplanes -- if you care for nicotine. But the PRAVDA, from Russia, adds that the product is far from perfect. It looks like a cigarette, it's used as a cigarette, but it's not a cigarette at all. Each pseudo-cigarette consists of a replaceable 'filter' containing the nicotine, and a heating element working on a battery, recharged by the 'pack' of cigarettes. The company, NicStic, says its product is good for smokers because it doesn't contain any tar, and for non-smokers, because there is obviously not passive smoking effect. It plans to introduce the product in Germany in about a year for a price similar as normal cigarettes. This overview contains more details about this pseudo-cigarette which might be sold in the U.S. in the near future."
I don't think it'll find much success, because it won't be as 'cool' as a regular cigarette. Much of th e reason people start to smoke (at the young age) is the ability to flip the ligher (in a cool way), light the cigarette (in a cool way), and exhale the smoke - in a cool way, looking like a suave motherfucker.
You do alot more than piss off the non-smokers, you kill them. Please stop.
Anything which reduces the health barrier to nicotine addiction is a bad thing. Period.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
I guess it was only a matter of time before fake beer and diet pop/soda got a companion.
This sounds like a pretty cool product. I wonder how sales would be regulated here in the US... could you sell something like this to minors?
...because there is obviously no passive smoking effect.
1) User of this new contraption breathes a lung-full of nicotine-air mixture.
2) Some of the nicotine from the air is deposited in user's lungs, providing whatever pleasures smokers get from it.
3) The rest of the nicotine-air mixture (although a bit less concentrated) is expelled from user's lungs and into the surrounding atmosphere.
4) An anonymous non-smoking bystander breathes some of the remaining nicotine that the user expelled a few moments.
5) Some of the nicotine is deposited in his lungs against his will.
No passive smoking effect? Yeah right...
(I don't smoke if you haven't figured that out yet)
most smokers smoke because Nicotine is an adictive depressant. You'll find that the bulk of smokers are in high stress jobs, especially poorly paying ones. People generally don't smoke because they want to. It's something they tried as a kid, and now that they're an adult, with all the stress and misery that comes with adulthood, they can't stop.
A better solution would be to force the tobacco companies to sell Nicotine free cigarettes. Not that they ever will. I remember a story in Wired where the only people who would grow them were the Amish. After all, what multi-national corp in its right mind would take out what makes its product popular? The funny thing is Nicotine is odorless and tasteless, so taking it out wouldn't hurt the 'cool, crisp' taste of your smokes one bit, but you might just loose your reason for smoking along the way...
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Nothing is safe. Fake cigarettes, near (0.05%) beer, diet soda, processed meats, fake boobs, fake politicians... Oh wait, they weren't real anyway. The politicians, I mean.
RLU 180035, get yourself counted at http://counter.li.org
Think razors. The battery, heater, etc are bought once. The nicotene "filters" are the bulk, cheap item. Combined, a "pack" will cost about the same.
My question is "Can teenagers buy this?" Remember, smoking bans are almost always based on the fact that smoking causes cancer and not the morality of chemical addictions.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
"and for non-smokers, because there is obviously not passive smoking effect." Yah as long as the smoker holds their breath. I knew pot smokers that would try to get all the THC by holding their breath or passing the smoke to some one else
And while Tobacco's nastier, at least THEY don't market to children anymore.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
i'm not suprise that this thing comes from Switzerland....
It's perhaps the most *smoked* country in Europe with the higher level of young smoker, perhaps also the higher quantity of cigarettes advertisement (*thanks* to the tobacco lobby)
i know this because, i'm young, i'm a smoker and i'm swiss....
Now, of course a polite smoker will ask those around him if they mind him smoking; and of course polite non-smokers will reply that they do not. But politeness is an art little-practised in this debased modern world.
I had cigarette smoke and my pet peeve about Germany is that you have hardly any non-smoking areas in restaurants. If this catches on it is going to make my life much more pleasant.
I am a polite non-smoker.
I'll still tell them that "Yes, I do in fact mind" when its appropriate (restaurants, certain public places where its inappropriate, my home, my car). On the other hand, I don't expect to be asked, nor would I object, to someone smoking in a bar. Nor in their home. Nor in their car.
Polite != "letting the smoker smoke whenever they want to". Polite == "having a sense of where smoking is appropriate - and where it isn't."
(And hint - when other people are eating, it is NOT appropriate.)
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
Yeah like totally for sure. I mean all you have todo is hide your smokes in your prodda then jett with your nikes when the fuzz comes around to bust ya.
Mind if I swig some $CHEAP_BEER cuz I'm totally needing to fake being drunk off 37mL of 2.5% alcohol. Like you know, "independent".
"Punkagers" as I call them [and I'm only 22 so you can figure out how much I hate conformity] like to be totally rebellious doing the stupidest shit.
Sure I had a beer [one] when I was 17 [before the legal age of 19]. But I wasn't particularly proud of it [to the point of bragging]. I was at an office party and had a beer. Whoopy-fucking-doo. Did I then turn into a lush because it was "cool" to drink? No. See I have the ability to reason that being a total fucking sheep isn't exactly how I'm going to spend my short life span on Earth.
You know how I "rebelled" in school? I read TAOCP [re: Knuth] during finite math classes [statistics] to the point where I got a detention for missing work. Then in detention I decided I was going to keep reading it.
While perhaps "nerdy" in my way of rebellion [cuz not many 18 yr olds read TAOCP] it did help out. I just finished my second contract consulting gig and I'm not even finished College yet. I've had a speaking appearance already too, etc...
It's all too easy to conform with your buddies and do the $POPULAR_EVENT_OF_WEEK. It's more meaningful and character defining to have your own path.
You smoked not because of the buzz but because you wanted to fit in with your buddies. I'm sure you were apprehensive of smoking at first and your friends all grew "mob mentality". I'm sure if you were a loner you probably wouldn't have started.
Before anyone mentions that loners have social tendencies like drinking/etc it's usually to act like others too [or some misguided goal of obtaining the allusive high]
Point is.... I hope you die of lung cancer in a car fire you fucking piece of shit smoker. Smokers are the rudest mean small little people who care shit all for the people around them because they think it's their "right" to pollute your lungs with the hate of some greedy monopolistic company trying to leverage a synergy between your wallet and their bank accounts.
So smoke up you vile smoking filth. You'll die painfully some day.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
If you're around secondhand smoke a lot, over a long period of time -- like if you're married to a smoker or you spend several years working in smoky bars or casinos or wherever -- there's a good chance this will cause some health problems of some kind. If you get a lungful of cigarette smoke once in a while as you leave a building or pull up next to a smoker at a red light or visit friends/relatives who smoke or watch movies where the characters smoke, it's not going to hurt you.
Think of it this way: Big Macs are unhealthy. Cyanide is also unhealthy. The difference is that eating one Big Mac isn't going to kill you. Cigarettes are unhealthy like Big Macs. If you smoke, quit, and if you don't smoke, don't start. But at the same time, don't freak out over every cubic millimeter of cigarette smoke that happens to touch you.
Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
'Secondary smoke' is no more dangerous than anything else.
I suppose that's why I get a severe asthma attack from second hand smoke. The only other thing that gives me as bad an attack are sulfites - used to be used to preserve fresh foods. No longer generally recommended as safe. (GRAS)
But hey, I guess decades of studies could be wrong. Perhaps you know better.
Or perhaps you are simply in denial. Apply Occam's razor liberally over affected area until delusions subside. If conditions worsen, please see your local FDA representative.
-Adam
I agree. I am a polite smoker. I do not smoke ANYWHERE INDOORS except smokers' homes, my home, or my car when I am alone in the thing. I won't smoke in my car when others are in it. I don't even bother asking...I just don't do it. Being in Boston means I can't smoke indoors anywhere anyway, so oh well. Where it's a health issue, I'll not smoke and not have a problem with it. The thing that pisses me off is NO SMOKING signs OUTSIDE! i'm outside...it's not a health issue if I'm outside and the smoke is getting blown away. At that point it's a moral issue, and that is not cool. I'll take my cancer-causing smoke outside so others aren't exposed, but to ban smoking outside where it is NOT a health issue is rude, inconsiderate and mean.
No, the polite non-smoker (who still has a sense of smell) would reply, "I'm sorry, I'm rather sensitive to cigarette smoke; but I'll happily wait here if you'd like to take a break." That the smoker even asked the question acknowledges the fact that smoking is something many people find unpleasant to be around. Saying the non-smoker should accept it is rather like someone saying, "Please, kick me in the head!" just because they were asked politely.
You do alot more than piss off the non-smokers, you kill them.
I don't have a problem with being a courteous smoker, but at the same time non-smokers are getting unreasonable. I don't violate non-smoking areas. If I'm at a non-smoker's house, I'll go outside to smoke. I do my best to make sure that I stay downwind of non-smokers when I smoke outside. Anti-tobacco militants have gone off the deep end.
For example, passing laws that make it illegal to smoke in a bar. IN A BAR FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!! Next they'll be trying to make it illegal to drink alcohol in a bar. Smoking and drinking is what people go to the bar to do.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Yeah cuz holes in your lungs and a retarded year-long cough is what "feels good".
Smokers claim it feels good as an excuse. Just like people who drink pop like the taste [which is hard to believe considering what it actually is].
I may live with my parents but that's because I didn't drop out of school to find any burger joint job so I can be "teh awesomes" while I live in a shitty apartment with my teenage pregnant wife.
I decided to attend college and build up my talents as a software developer and cryptographer. Oh for fucking shame.
Who said the way you're implying to live [e.g. move out quick, find *any* job and live with it] is the best? I know many people who did that and they're basically struggling to get both classes and $$$ work done on time. They'll finish College without any discernable talents because they will be one of 600 other grads.
I pay rent to my parents, I pay my own bills. Just I don't pay as much [I pay about 600$/month in bills]. The extra time I have I spend on my projects like the LibTom series of consulting which further set me apart from the "diploma mill" grads I'll be graduating with.
Of course maybe that's because I can tolerate my parents and not act like a little prissy punkager who must "hate his parents" cuz it's uncool to think otherwise.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
And why the sudden urge to smoke? My parents smoked. My babysitters [when I was 7] smoked. None of my friends smoke [by design] and even if they did I wouldn't follow their footsteps.
Maybe they continue to smoke [at first] because of the rush but I can't imagine they continue to smoke [after a year] or even start because of the rush. It's the same thing with drinking.
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I'm not even on the side of the smokers, but I'm definately not on your side. I have a young relative with Cystic Fibrosis, and if we're in a situation where her breathing might become impaired, she'll don a mask. We've either asked people to politely quit smoking, or leave if it was at the end of our meal. When we're sick ourselves and handling her, we'll don masks ourselves.
But mandate laws around you? Grow a backbone and quit whining on a web site.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
The ultimate test of freedom is standing up for it in the face of that which you don't like.
What a load of crap.
The ultimate test of freedom is standing up for it in the face of what is wrong.
I am a very outspoken Libertarian ideologically (maybe moderate/conservative in a practical sense, but striving toward a gradual implementation of libertarianism in the big picture). But even I cannot stand by and let someone "exercise their personal rights" while I have to walk through a cloud of smoke, which typically gives me headaches and sneezing fits when I get a good whiff. Yes, the rest of the city stinks. But your rights to smoke end where my rights to inhale a "clean" (relatively) breath and enjoy a smoke-free meal begin.
Having personal liberty does not mean you get to do whatever you want, it means you make your own personal choices without interferring with, or interference from, others. And smoking anywhere other than in a private location with no minors around infringes on other peoples' rights. END OF STORY, CASE CLOSED, NEXT F@CKING CASE!
And I agree that non-smokers tend to consider smoking is a nuisance. But I also think that short pants on anyone over the age of 13 are a nuisance. I don't presume to legislate over either issue:-)
Regarding the load on government-funded health care a) the government shouldn't be in that business in the first place and b) economic studies have shown that the net effect is positive: higher health expenses of some sorts (and reduced tax contributions) are offset by reduced Social Security and on-going health care costs (since cigarette smokers tend to die earlier).
I don't disagree that most cigarette smokers would have a much better quality of life if they quit. I do believe that most non-smokers would have a much better quality of life if they would smoke moderately (say, a cigar a month or a pipe a week). We pipe smokers outlast you all:-)
I am allergic to a wide variety of things (cats, mold, ragweed, etc)
The allergy tests I had years ago (million pricks on the back) did not test for tobacco smoke or sulfites.
The only asthma attacks I get are from cigarette smoke and when I have a bad illness. The smoke incidents are much more critical. My asthma does not appear to be triggered by any of the other things I'm allergic to.
Many allergens are not avoidable, but tobacco does not 'naturally' dry out and burn of its own accord. I contend that man made allergens that are not obviously beneficial to society ought to be more thouroughly scrutinized, and that reasonable restrictions should be tolerated.
The original point of the thread was that second hand smoke does not kill, and I am simply pointing out that it can kill. Just like cancer doesn't kill (it's always "heart failure" or something) second hand smoke doesn't kill - it would simply be labelled "bronchial asthma" or "anaphylactic shock" by the coroner.
In programming parlance, this is a corner case. Not a frequent occurence. Society can either ignore it as something that needs no attention, or take resonable steps to "program" around it.
My point is that the corner case exist and the decision to ignore it or fix the problem should be made. Just don't spread the myth that it doesn't exist.
-Adam
I won't get worried until they make it illegal to smoke alcohol in bars.
Seriously though, I've never been a smoker, and frankly I don't like the things. I really don't: I get physically ill if the smoke gets too thick. Honestly, if every smoker in the world decided, on their own, to just quit tomorrow that would be fine by me.
However, I do object to the anti-smoking witch hunting I see going on right now. Raising taxes, making it illegal to smoke in BARS and so forth. I see this as a sort of neo-Prohibitionist attitude on the part of some lawmakers, and a good number of citizens. While I personally don't like smoking, I do resent it when politicians get it into their collective heads to take punitive action against an otherwise law-abiding sector of the population. It's easy to jump on the bandwagon of Prohibition when it's against a behavior that one personally finds distasteful. It's even easier to find reasonable-sounding justifications for doing so.
If we let our politicians get in the habit of letting their own morals and prejudices affect their lawmaking to this degree, the next time 'round, the shoe may be on the other foot. The day may come when they try to outlaw the blowjob. When that happens, I'm moving to Canada.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Oh shut up. Why should your freedoms impinge upon mine? You go somewhere else. We've already been banned from certain restaurants, crammed into small corners in others, and generally been treated like criminals.
I think you need to take care of your asthma problem. It's not my problem you can't breathe for shit, why are you bitching to us? Why should I have to restrict my activities to the lowest common denominator? If you don't like it, stay away.
You don't exactly see me saying to people carrying around various viruses and bacteria to stay away. Personally I don't care if others want to harm themselves by getting sick, *I* just don't want to be affected by *their* colds.
My need to be healthy trumps your freedom to cough and sneeze in public.
What's even worse is that there is no compromise in our society anymore. Instead of allowing bars to purchase a "smoking" license or have separate smoking sections, it's just totally illegal outright. I see no problem in allowing a bar (or restaurant, or any other business) to build a separate enclosed smoking area with its own ventilation. If they want to front the cost to build it, they should be able to. There are ways to deal with issues like this instead of simply just banning everything... It just slowly nibbles away at that whole "land of the free" thing.