Vaping helps some to quit cigarettes

A new tool smokers have turned to is e-cigarettes, or vaping.

Nate McDowell remembers the day he bought his vapor. He said he had three packs of cigarettes in his vehicle when he bought his kit last year. That day, right after he bought it, he threw away the packs of cigarettes.

“I feel a million times better since I stopped smoking and started vaping,” McDowell said.

McDowell says vaping works because people are still getting nicotine and going through the same hand-to-mouth movements of smoking.

Since quitting, McDowell said he tried to take a puff off a friend’s cigarette and it nauseated him.

Because vaping helped McDowell stop smoking cigarettes, he decided to open up The Vapor Store in Boise, saying he was a testament to the way vaping helps someone quit smoking cigarettes.

McDowell says the first person he got to stop smoking was his friend’s 60-year-old dad, who first started smoking Lucky Strikes when he was 12.

A similar story inspired Lacy Sereduk to open Valley Vapor three months ago.

Sereduk and her husband had tried numerous ways to stop smoking, but were never successful. She said the real test was seeing if vaping would help her husband, who smoked a pack a day.

“The first time he tried it, he didn’t have a cigarette again,” Sereduk said.

The first thing Sereduk noticed when she stopped smoking cigarettes and turned to vaping was that everything didn’t smell awful and her sense of smell came back.

“Walking through even a grocery store, it is surprising how strong the cigarette smell is on people who smoke,” Sereduk said.

Both McDowell and Sereduk have noticed they don’t spend as much on vaping as they did on cigarettes. Sereduk estimated that in three months, her family saved about $1,000.

But questions abound when it comes to recommending vaping for cessation and whether or not it is safe.

Dr. Dan Hendrickson has been practicing in the field of pulmonary medicine since 1991. Hendrickson, who works at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, says that he is not in favor of e-cigarettes as a cessation tool.

“We don’t know what the long-term safety of it is,” Hendrickson said, adding that nicotine still contributes to heart disease. For Hendrickson, the American Cancer Society smoking cessation is the best way to quit.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking to classify e-cigarettes and vapors as a tobacco product, because the nicotine in them is derived from tobacco. If that happens, then the FDA would be able to regulate e-cigarettes.

The FDA describes e-cigarettes as battery-operated products that are designed to deliver nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. They turn nicotine and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

Testing by the FDA in 2009 found diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze, in e-cigarettes.

Sereduk says she is worried about certain flavors that other venders sell.

“Most of the companies that you talk to, they don’t want to tell you what is in it,” Sereduk said.

She makes sure to answer any questions her customers have about vaping and puts all the ingredients of her vaping juice on each label.

According to the Valley Vapor website, the juice is made up of nicotine, flavor concentrate and either vegetable glycerine or propylene glycol.