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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."
don't they already have a nic. inhaler? called nicotrol, if im not mistaken
one of the great pleasures of being a smoker is pissing off the non-smokers. I guess I'll have to eat more beans.
oh, and first post or something.
perl -e '$_="\007/4`\cp%2,".chr(127);s/./"\"\\c$&\""/gees
I really don't see an average smoker buying one of these. Many tabaco companies experimented with these years ago and failed. There is not substitute for the 'cancer stick'.
Are there any interactions with the nicotine patch and gum that I use?
Is it ok to smoke regular cigarettes and this at the same time?
Karma: -2147483648 (Mostly affected by integer overflow)
the marijuana flavored ones?
Roland is just using slashdot to direct traffic to his shitty weblog, and now he even has his own domain!
How much is michael getting on the side to plug this guy?
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.
They're forgetting one of the fundamental problems - most smokers like smoking because it's more habitual. They're used to the act of having a cigarette in their hand and the act of blowing smoke.
This cannot provide that - maybe people will use this when they fly or in places where they cannot use normal cigarettes, but is definitely not going to be a popular substitue for cigarettes.
Besides, cigarettes have an illusion of being "cheap" and easily available. Not to mention the perceived (albeit ill-placed) "coolness factor".
Dude, can I bum a AA?
What if that mime really is trapped in a box?
Anything which reduces the health barrier to nicotine addiction is a bad thing. Period.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Can somebody explain to me how a battery, heating element, plastic case, and filter can POSSIBLY be as cheap to manufacture as dried leaves, paper, and a filter? Am I missing something here?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Wasn't their a Discovery Health show on tobacco and all the amazing ways they have tried to fix what a smoke is to make it less bad for you and have yet to succeed in making something palatable?
This is a bomb. People smoke because its a habitual ticking nerosis.. They like the way smoke feels entering and leaving them, ritual. Not necessarily the direct effect.
Course its all open for debate.
"Life is all about strategy, mathematics and psychological perceptiveness."
RJ Reynolds developed a system similar to this in the late 80's and was shot down by the FDA. It seems that the FDA considered this a drug and drug delivery device and not a cigarette. Which of course means lots and lots and lots of expensive "drug" testing. However there is a japanese company that makes an electrical heating element device for normal cigarettes which supposedly "vaporizes" the nicotine for inhaltion without smoke, I wish I had a link. IIRC there was some mention of this in a PBS special many years back called "the search for a safe cigarette"...
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
THe exciting thing about this product is that it is small enough and inconspicuous enough to use like a normal cig, but without the smoke.
The current nictone subsitutes (gums and patches) are really expensive, so this could be a much more afordable way to help addicts stop putting gunk in their lungs.
sorry 'bout the mess...
I'm not sure about the details, but I remember watching something on TV several years ago about cigarette companies in the US coming up with such a thing.
A cigarette with no tobacco, and with this red glowing thing at the end. Looked like a real cigarette too.
They had high hopes for it, but guess what happened? They weren't allowed to sell it, on the grounds that it was essentially a device to administer dosages of a strong drug.
I don't remember the details, but i'm sure someone could google around and find some.
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?
That I'm gonna take up smoking again!
Don't get me wrong; I'm not addicted to nicotine. I've quit hundreds of times!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Already Done, part of the reason Nabisco/RJR collapsed in the 80's
Google
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
...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)
R.J. Reynolds tried this back in 1996 with a product called Eclipse.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9606/03/cigarette/
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...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
While it's true that many of the carcinogens are part of the combustion process, this is still NOT a "safe" cigarette. Tobacco has LOTS and LOTS of carcinogens that are passed to the smoker. It's been so far impossible to eliminate them all.
Tobacco's toxic properties have been well known. How does Marijuana compare?
The taxes that are imposed on the Tobacco which are used to create those nasty smoke sticks.
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
http://www.fact-index.com/p/pr/premier_cigarette.h tml
It failed badly. For one, consumers didn't like it. Two, it was deemed a drug delivery system and not a cigarette. That not only complicated sales from a legal distribution POV, but it meant the tobacco companies were admitting that nicotine was addictive and that they were addicting their clients, thus opening them up for lawsuits.
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
I used to smoke, and I miss it.
Seriously. It was nice and relaxing. The only reason I stopped was because, obviously, it's not that great for you.
But at least something like this makes it so that if you want the effect of nicotine, you don't have to shell out $40 for a pack of nicotine gum.
Yeah, nicotine isn't GOOD for you, but neither is alcohol and people still do that. At least this isn't nearly as bad as inhaling all that tar and smoke!
There will always be a passive effect... you exhale the nicotine, surely someone near you would inhale a part of it, but still, better than cigarettes themselves.
Good improvement!
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
> You do alot more than piss off the non-smokers, you kill them. Please stop.
Bullshit.
You smoke, you die.
Don't smoke.....
You still die.
It is just a matter of time and place.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
"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 a smoker of Eclipse cigarettes. While I've quit and started smoking twice in my life, I've found recently that these cigarettes do not inhibit my life at all. They are essentially smokeless cigarettes, the smoke that is produced is odorless (smells like burnt paper) and doesn't come off in thick rings from the end of the cigarette as I smoke it.
Generally speaking, innovations made in producing a 'healthy cigarette' usually involve a lot of cost, but these cigarettes are usually sold at the same price as Marborlo Lights. They also come in menthol.
With 80% less additives, I think I'll stick to these unless the new battery-powered cigarettes actually end up cheaper.
There is no reason why nicotine stuff like this could not be extremely cheap. They even sell nicotine as bug killer. Pure nicotine without the tar and other cancer causing crap in ciggarette smoke would probably be much less damaging to one's health.
The problem is that nicotine addicts are like lab rats that hit a bar for more even if it is killing them. If they are given a cheap painless way to take nicotine, they'll take even more of it.
Think back to the first ciggarette that you ever tried to puff. For me it was in fifth grade. I was given a lit ciggarette by some older kids and dared to puff it. I inhaled deeply 'like a man' and exhaled out my nose as quickly as I could and still 'look cool'. My eyes were watering, and at the end, I couldn't help but cough my guts out, almost puking. The experience was so awful that I didn't touch tobacco again till I was 23.
You need to overcome substantial natural aversion to inhaling smoke in order to get a nicotine fix from smoking. Myself, I learned to smoke by absorbing nicotine from uninhaled cigar smoke held in my mouth. Even that tasted foul at first, until I learned to appreciate it.
And chewing tobacco tastes extremely awful as well. Tobacco is a plant who's flavor says: Don't eat me! If I taste this bad, I MUST be poisonous - and I am!
Of course cigarrettes are the free-base crack form of nicotine. They are all ( maybe not American Spirit, or other 'Eco-health-food' brands of cigarrettes but certainly ordinary brands like Marlboro and Camel ) laced with Urea or Ammonia. The basic additives help the nicotine to affect your brain much more quickly increasing your association of the nicotine pleasure with the ciggarette you are smoking, and hence strengthening your addiction. The difference between ciggarettes and other forms of nicotine is the difference between cocaine and crack.
With the ability to stay perpetually high on nicotine everywhere, the other effects of nicotine - like cardiovascular disease will become more prominant.
I quit smoking about a year ago cold turkey from 3 packs a day and 2 years as an addict. My Mom still smokes, and probably will until it kills her.
I guess there's no real substitute for the voice of experience, is there?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
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.
They aren't smokeless, but definatly noteworthy. They look like a normal cig, but have a heating element that you initially light with a lighter. I think its a carbon filament, so it burns quite hot for about 4 minutes, and while its hot, you can "smoke" the tobacco in the tube. Note that there are no ashes becuase nothing besides tobacco is burned, and the "cig" never shrinks down like a normal one. Also, when you exhale, it is quite wierd... its like you are exhaling water. The cig pack says its mostly a glycerol mix instead of the normal tar laden smoke.
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.
Cigarettes STINK...
People that smoke, STINK..
I smoked 3 packs a day, full tilt, until the day I quit, Dec. 26, 1998..
I smoked from the time I was 14 until I quit at 37.
So, I'm fully qualified to BITCH at people about smoking.
Nicotine is a poison. They used to (and may still) put it in Black Flag roach poison.
Look it up if you don't believe me.
And the stench is unbearable. I have several friends that smoke and when they bring their computers over for me to work on I have to leave them plugged in and running in my garage for at least two days to get the stench out of them before bringing them inside. ALL of their stuff is PISS yellow, keyboards, mice, monitors all gunked up and sticky.
Yuck!..
One guy just brought me his computer because the power supply burned out. Why? Smoke. The nicotine gunked up the cooling fan in the power supply so badly that it quit spinning and the power supply burned up. He's lucky, wait until the fan on his CPU does the same thing.
The inside of his computer is DISGUSTINGLY filthy. I hate to even touch it it's so nasty.
And when I go to any of my smoking friends houses, I have to take my clothes of in the garage and drop them straight into the washer or they will make my house stink. I have to take a shower right away after I get home, it makes my hair stink, everything. And that's just from being in the house where they smoke, and they don't smoke while I'm there!
When they pull out some cigarettes I tell them "Oh, time for a suicide stink stick eh?"
And for those that dip or chew tobacco, ever seen someone with mouth cancer? It's enough to make you vomit. The sight is worse than anything you would see in a horror movie.
I hate going to the store where people throw their stinking butts on the ground, the entrance at the stores stink, it's like walking through a gas chamber just trying to get into the store..
I think they should make tobacco totally illegal, the use, sale, growth, purchase, etc.. Get caught using tobacco, go to jail, felony, 1 year 1st offense.
Get caught selling tobacco, charge, attempted murder, penalty, DEATH. 1st offense..
As you know, nature abhors a vacuum...
yea i stole your sig- whats the big deal, it sucked anyway.
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?
Every word of the parent is true.
I smoked an average of one pack a day from age 11 until February 10, 2002.
My children visit their grandmother's house and I wash their clothes IMMEDIATELY after then come home. I can smell tobacco smoke on them in a strong breeze. I am constantly bothering my mom about quitting.
There is nothing good than can be said about smoking that can counter the bad shit that can be said about smoking.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
The smoke is bad for you, as all smoke is. However you generally inhale much less of it than with cigarettes. I mean it's not uncommon to see someone smoke 2+ packs of cigs per day, but I don't know many potheads that smoke more than 10 joints a day.
As for the active ingrediants (nicotine vs THC) it also depends on what you mean. THC is essentially non-toxic in terms of killing you, you'd be hard pressed to OD on it. Nicotine, on the other hand, is quite toxic. However obviously, in standard concentrations, THC has a more severe effect on the body, hence why you need to smoke less to feel good.
Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit. But just for the record, I think smoking is a vile nasty habbit.
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.
The people with asthma? Or is asthma bullshit too? I know one girl with asthma in my hall that has to avoid smokers. Not only that, but she cannot be in a (motel) room that has had the smoke absorbed into everything. And spraying the room with perfume (so that most people don't notice the smoke) doesn't help at all, since the smoke is still there and gives her an asthma attack. So it kills asthmatics, do you really think it's not unhealthful for everyone else? Then why do people cough when they breathe in second-hand smoke? Because their body doesn't like it but it's really not harmful at all? Maybe I should make a cigarrette out of poison oak or something.
At my local 7-11 even:
:)
Eclipse Cigarettes by RJ Reynolds
You light it like a normal cigarette, but what you're actually lighting is a graphite rod that burns slowly and provides heat. Then then you inhale it heats up a packet of tobbaco which releases nicotine and water vapor but that's about it. (It works like a vaporizer)
No smoke, just water vapor and a different taste, and all that sweet sweet nicotine!
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
...at Benson and Hedges?
There is a reason why tobacco is "politically acceptable substance to hate". There still may be some debate as to what second hand smoke does to people, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT that the smokers themselves are at increased risk of enphesyma and cancer and that by smoking you shorten your life considerably. As such, more people are quitting smoking and fewer start at all.
Regardless of what science says about health dangers of second hand smoke, you CANNOT DISPUTE that just like most other kinds of smoke, it is an irritant--particularly to non-smokers. Since the majority of the population in North America are now non-smokers, the majority find smoking distasteful. As it is a democratic society, majority rules on most matters. This is leading towards the eventual extinction of smoking in public.
I'm not sure some smokers realise this, but smoking is considered a dirty habit now. Never mind whether second-hand smoke is a health hazard. The smoke smells awful. The smoke makes people's eyes sting. It makes my eczema flare up when I'm in a smokey room. The butts are disguisting to look at. I've also noticed a slowly growing trend in the opinion that smoking is a habit of the low-class. It is about as appealing and sophisticated to many as spitting chewing tobacco. Unapologetic smokers are thought to be more likely low-income, uneducated individuals.
Not only that, smokers present a safety hazard. Insurance companies charge higher premiums to homeowners to permit smoking in their homes because of studies demonstrating an increased fire risk. The grasslands in an urban park within my city catch fire during dry weather, and the last few have ALL been attributed to careless disposal of lit cigarettes. One of the fires out an adjoining neighbourhood in danger as well.
Even as a non-smoker however, I do not agree with excessive government intrusion into private habits. I support the idea of a total ban on smoking in government buildings, schools, hospitals and establishments that permit children. I also support tax incentives for smoke-free businesses (promoting healthy lifestyles reduces the load on government funded medicare). I do NOT think business owners should be FORCED to ban smoking in situations outside the above (age 18+ only, private buildings). Given the state of society today, I think that is a reasonable compromise.
If smokers do not see that as a reasonable compromise, I might suggest to them to make an effort to quit smoking--the increased quality of life is amazing. If you do not believe even now that you have no good reason to quit, use your manners and keep your habit to yourself--smoke in your own home/yard only, or in a space designated as a smoking area. If you light up in public, chances are that the majority of people around you are non-smokers and are bothered by your smoke.
FYI, the smell of cigarette smoke bothers ex-smokers a lot more than normal. I know, I'm an ex-smoker. The smell of smoke never bothered me before or during the years I smoked, but now it bugs me to no end, and EVERY ex-smoker I know is like this. So be aware: as an ex-smoker you are constantly over-reacting to the smells and side-effects of smoking.
As far as death penalty for selling tobacco... you're just a sad sad person.
And no, this is not a troll...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
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 CHOOSE to smoke" my ass.
Admit it. You're an addict. You couldn't stop if you tried. Getting your buzz is more important to you than pissing off every non-smoker in your vincinity by stinking up their clothes and filling their air with crap. And you'll pay through the nose and ruin your health and that of anyone unfortunate enough to live with you to do so.
You can cop an attitude all you want, but it won't cover up the fact that you're that cancer stick's bitch.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
...is a style of government. Democracy is a process used by government. It seems to me that they are related but not the same thing. Isn't your statement kind of like saying "an orange is not a plant, it is a fruit"?
Doesn't democracy play an important role in a democratic republic? In my observation the US holds elections on every damn thing to do with government. Today, you are electing the President, congressmen, sentaors, judges, public commissioners, voting on propositions, etc etc etc.
Seems to me that the system was at least INTENDED to govern by majority opinion.