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A smoking alternative, popular overseas, has made landfall here and is raising some eyebrows in the process. The E Cigarette was brought to the United States by Cape Coral resident and Germany native Dieter Fiebbig. After his wife of 41 years lost her fight with lung cancer, he was inspired to help smokers quit.

The device, which costs around $100.00, operates on a re-chargeable battery, which powers a red light that glows on the tip. When you inhale, the E Cigarette emits an virtually odorless vapor that simulates actual smoke.

So far, no major American health organization has endorsed the product, but the company offers incentive to customers: Quit within three weeks of buying E Cigarette and get a $100.00 rebate.

E Cigarettes are already popular smoking alternatives in Europe and China…but will they work here? www.ruyanhealth.com

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I’m positive you remember this phrase from “Thank you for smoking” movie: “Nick Naylor does not hide the truth…he filters it!”.

The fictional spokesman probably inspired a Chinese company that announced the first “electronic” cigarette. Apparently, SBT Co. LTD is the Beijing-based firm that developed the electronic cigarette tech back in 2003, and which is now controlled by Golden Dragon.

This is not the first time a company announces a surrogate that could help smokers kick the bad habit. Nicotine patches and nicotine gums are very successful on the “Quit smoking!” market. Well, the e-cigarette is not intended to act like a cigarette replacement. What we’re dealing with here (totally respecting the consumer) is a high-end nicotine inhaler that is powered by batteries. Here’s how it works: the e-cigarette inhaler is a cigarette sized plastic tube that heats and vaporizes tobacco instead of burning it. After the cigarette is stuffed in the filter, it will be warm enough for a smoke free nicotine fix. “It feels like smoking a real cigarette”, at least that’s what Scott Fraser, Vice President of SBT CO.LTD said (you shouldn’t believe that!).

The e-cigarette competitors include the “real” fighting lung cancer products coming from Pfizer and Novartis Ag. Actually, Golden Dragon’s product surfaces in a scenario where legions of Chinese smokers try to quit. Why quit? Smoking is cool. Right.

The e-cigarette kit sells for 1600 yuan ($208) and it’s already available in China, Israel, Turkey and also in a some European countries (and maybe soon in the US too).

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Introducing RUYAN electronic cigarette cigar and super e-cigarette! These smokeless nicotine vaporizers provide one of the most clean forms of smoking. No cancer causing side effects because “It’s not smoke”.

Quit the Marlboros, the Capris, the Newports, the Virgina Slims and the cigars.

The main benefit of the smokeless, vaporizing cigar/cigarette is there is no cancer causing radium 222 as found in regular tobacco.

The U.S. Government has approved a list of 599 chemicals to be used in corporate tobacco cigarettes. The list is quite toxic.

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INDIO, Calif. (AP) — By the end of Coachella, over 100 bands had fanned out across five stages, more than 150,000 people had sweltered through the desert heat and at least as many bottles of water had been guzzled.

But there was one who rose above all others.

Prince, in his Saturday evening headlining performance, firmly established himself in Coachella lore among famous concerts from years past, including the Pixies and Rage Against the Machine. Prince, for certain, didn’t plan to share the mantle.

“From now on, this is Prince’s house!” he declared at the end of his set, which went well beyond midnight.

Few seemed inclined to argue after Prince put on a funky, rollicking show that featured passionate performances of classics like “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Purple Rain,” as well as unexpected and creative covers of Radiohead (”Creep”) and the Beatles (”Come Together”).

But it was also hard to forget Rogers Waters’ performance as the headliner Sunday. In contrast to Prince’s celebratory concert, Waters presented the festival’s biggest political statement — literally.

At the conclusion of Waters’ first set, a giant inflatable pig was led above the crowd from strings to the ground. It was painted with graffiti on one side with the words “Don’t be led to the slaughter” and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read “Fear builds walls.”

The underside of the pig simply read “Obama” with a checked ballot box alongside.

On the stage, Waters and his band played one of the versions of “Pigs” from Pink Floyd’s 1977 album “Animals,” a concept disc that criticizes capitalism.

As Waters drew to a loud close, flame bursts were exploded on the sides of the stage and the swine was released into the night sky. Waters said sadly and comically, “That’s my pig.”

He then took a break, having played a set of both Pink Floyd classics and new material. He later returned to play “Dark Side of the Moon” in full.

Earlier in the day, Sean Penn also made a political statement, albeit without the aid of a giant inflatable farm animal. He stopped by to speak twice, urging the mostly young crowd to be more politically active and join him on a cross-country bus trip leaving Monday for New Orleans.

Wearing a T-shirt and jeans and smoking a cigarette while he sat on a stool, Penn said he unfortunately couldn’t perform his “a cappella Celine Dion cover act” since he had “compromised his upper register.”

Altogether, this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Fesival — the ninth annual — was as varied as any before it. As usual, it featured several reunited bands, and none more anticipated than Portishead.

On Saturday night, the band filled the night air with steely, cool trip-hop and gritty, fierce new songs such as “Machine Gun.” Singer Beth Gibbons, who tightly clutched the microphone with both hands throughout, broke from her focus at the end of the set to hop off stage and gleefully run along the crowd, shaking hands.

Walking off stage, Geoff Barrow, the band’s soundscapist, referred to Portishead’s decade of dormancy: “Thanks for waiting,” he told the crowd.

Friday night’s headliner, surfer singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, appeared too mellow for the plum gig, as many left the festival grounds as he played. He followed a performance by the Verve, another reunited British outfit. Their psychedelic Brit Pop sounded of another era but was still impressively powerful and self-assured

Coachella, which is put on by concert promoter Goldenvoice, is a hugely diverse mix of sights and sounds — and there were many over the weekend. The uber-cool MC M.I.A packed them into the Sahara Tent on Saturday night, where even the backstage area was teaming with at least a hundred clamoring for her.

I’m From Barcelona, which, alas, is from Sweden, made perhaps the festival’s best entrance, taking the stage Sunday 17 strong and bearing dozens of giant red balloons. As the balloons circulated and confetti rained down, it launched into “Treehouse,” and lead singer Emanuel Lundgren jumped into the crowd.

The Denver-based gypsy band DeVotchKa also displayed theatrics. As the four-piece group thumped away on upright bass and tuba, the Amazing Slavic Sisters acrobatically ascended 30 feet up hanging tapestries flanking the stage.

Many more played, as well, among them the Raconteurs, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Kraftwerk, Vampire Weekend, Fatboy Slim, MGMT and Aphex Twin.

Located in the Southern California desert a few hours’ drive from Los Angeles, Coachella has emerged as one of the country’s biggest music events and the unofficial kickoff to the summer festival season.

Drawing electronic music, indie rock and pop acts, it’s fostered a cool identity of sun-drenched dancing. The crowd was largely composed of fashionable hipsters showing plenty of skin in dry, hot weather that at times cracked 100 degrees.

“Festivals usually smell a lot worse than this one,” National lead singer Matt Berninger told the crowd while playing Friday. “You guys smell really nice.”

Battalion Chief Bart Chambers of the Indio Fire Department said about 25 people had been hospitalized by late Sunday afternoon, many of them because of heat-related injuries.

Coachella is a well-run festival where five stages are laid out in an expansive U-shape, behind which a veritable racecourse of golf carts runs, shuttling musicians and VIPs to the stages. Hundreds of fans camped on the festival grounds, and a few dozen took more posh digs in $4,000 tents, complete with air conditioning and candles.

In the middle of the grounds are giant sculptures, typically brought from the Burning Man festival. At night, many of them glow, and the surrounding mountain ranges and palm trees create a memorable environment. Corporate advertising is largely absent.

Coachella’s proximity to Los Angeles also has traditionally meant a visible celebrity contingent. Though Paris Hilton and Alicia Silverstone were among those in attendance, the festival didn’t appear to have the same celeb buzz as it has in years past — like when Madonna played in 2006.

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Tobacco is a plant grown for its leaves, which are smoked, chewed, or sniffed for a variety of effects. It is considered an addictive substance because it contains the chemical nicotine.

In addition to nicotine, tobacco contains over 19 known cancer-causing chemicals (most are collectively known as “tar”) and more than 4,000 other chemicals. These include acetone, ammonia, carbon monoxide, cyanide, methane, propane, and butane.

Over 38 million people in the United States have successfully quit smoking. Yet there are still around 50 million Americans who smoke. The majority say they would like to quit.

And, while the number of cigarette smokers in the United States has dropped over recent years, the number of smokeless tobacco users has steadily risen. This trend is likely related to the false belief that smokeless tobacco is safe. It is NOT. Smokeless tobacco carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes. Some people who want to stop smoking, but who still crave the nicotine, turn to smokeless tobacco wrongly thinking that they are doing something good for themselves.

THE EFFECTS OF NICOTINE

• Nicotine acts as both a stimulant and depressant on your body. It increases your bowel activity, saliva, and bronchial secretions. It stimulates the nervous system and may cause tremors in the inexperienced user, or even convulsions with high doses.
• After stimulation, there’s a phase that depresses the muscles in your airways. As a euphoric agent, nicotine causes relaxation from stressful situations.
• On average, tobacco increases your heart rate 10 to 20 beats per minute, and it increases your blood pressure reading by 5 to 10 mmHg (because it constricts the blood vessels).
• Nicotine may also cause sweating, nausea, and diarrhea. Nicotine elevates the blood level of glucose (blood sugar) and increases insulin production. Nicotine also tends to enhance platelet aggregation, which may lead to blood clots.
• Nicotine temporarily stimulates memory and alertness. People who use tobacco frequently depend on it to help them accomplish certain tasks at specific levels of performance. Nicotine also tends to be an appetite suppressant. (For this reason, fear of weight gain also influences the willingness of some people to stop smoking.)

Finally, tobacco is highly addictive. It is considered mood and behavior altering. Tobacco is believed to have an addictive potential comparable to alcohol, cocaine, and morphine.

HEALTH RISKS

There are many reasons to quit using tobacco. Knowing the serious health risks may help motivate you to quit. When used over a long period, tobacco and related chemicals such as tar and nicotine can increase your risk of:

• Blood clots, which may lead to aneurysms and strokes
• Cancer (especially in the lung, mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix)
• Coronary artery disease, including angina and heart attacks
• Decreased ability to taste and smell
• Delayed wound healing
• High blood pressure
• Lung problems such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis
• Pregnancy-related problems, including miscarriage, premature labor, low birth weight, and risk for sudden infant death syndrome ( SIDS)
• Tooth and gum diseases

You have the same risks if you use smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco, snuff, etc.) for a long time. In addition, smokeless tobacco users have a 50 times greater risk for mouth cancer than those who do not use such products.

SECONDHAND SMOKE

Those who are regularly around the smoke of others (secondhand smoke) have a higher risk of:

• Coronary artery disease
• Lung cancer
• Sudden and severe reactions, including those involving the eye, nose, throat, and lower respiratory tract

Infants and children that are exposed regularly to secondhand smoke are at risk of:

• Asthma
• Infections, including virus-caused upper respiratory infections, ear infections, and pneumonia
• Lungs that do not work as well (poor lung function)
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

TIME TO QUIT

There are a lot of ways to quit smoking and many resources to help you. Family members, friends, and coworkers may be supportive or encouraging, but the desire and commitment to quit must be your own.

Most people who have been able to successfully quit smoking made at least one unsuccessful attempt in the past. Try not to view past attempts to quit as failures, but rather as learning experiences.

Feel ready to quit? Here are some tips:

• List the reasons you want to quit. Include both short- and long-term benefits.
• Ask your health care provider for help. Find out whether prescription medications might help. Also ask about nicotine patches, gum, and sprays.
• Ask your family, friends, and coworkers for support.
• Set a quit date, and get rid of all of your cigarettes by that date.
• Quit completely — cold turkey.
• Get more exercise. It relieves the urge to smoke.
• Learn self-hypnosis from a qualified practitioner. This helps some people.
• Make a plan about what you will do, instead of smoking, when stressed or other times you have the urge for tobacco. Be as specific as possible.
• Avoid smoke-filled settings and situations in which you are more likely to smoke.

Like any addiction, quitting tobacco is difficult, particularly if you are acting alone. If you join smoking cessation programs, you have a much better chance of success. Such programs are offered by hospitals, health departments, community centers, and work sites.

The best quit-smoking programs combine multiple strategies, including peer support and ways to overcome potential relapse situations. Counseling by telephone can be a very helpful reinforcement, even as effective as face-to-face counseling.

Short-term use of the antidepressant medication bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban), along with a quit-smoking program, may increase your success. Bupropion requires a prescription from your health provider and should not be used if you have a history of seizures or kidney failure.

If you aren’t successful the first time, simply look at what occurred or what didn’t work, develop new strategies, and try again. Many attempts are often necessary to finally “beat the habit.”

THE BENEFITS OF QUITTING

• Within 20 minutes of quitting - your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and the temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.
• Within 8 hours of quitting - your carbon monoxide levels drop and your oxygen levels increase, both to normal levels.
• Within 24 hours of quitting - your risk of a sudden heart attack decreases.
• Within 48 hours of quitting - nerve endings begin to regenerate and your senses of smell and taste begin to return to normal.
• Within 2 weeks to 3 months of quitting - your circulation improves and walking becomes easier; even your lung function increases up to 30%.
• Within 1 to 9 months of quitting - your overall energy typically increases and symptoms like coughing, nasal congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath diminish; also, the small hairlike projections lining your lower airways begin to function normally. This increases your lungs’ ability to handle mucus, clean the airways, and reduce infections.
• Within 1 year of quitting - your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of someone still using tobacco.
• Within 5 years of quitting - the lung cancer death rate decreases by nearly 50% compared to one pack/day smokers; the risk of cancer of the mouth is half that of a tobacco user.
• Within 10 years of quitting - your lung cancer death rate becomes similar to that of someone who never smoked; precancerous cells are replaced with normal cells; your risk of stroke is lowered, possibly to that of a nonuser; your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas all go down.

WHEN TO CONTACT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL

Call your doctor if you are a smoker and:

• You want an individual health risk profile
• You want to learn about methods to stop tobacco use
• You are pregnant, planning a pregnancy in the future, or using birth control pills
• You have symptoms of specific diseases associated with tobacco use (even if you are a nonsmoker exposed to secondhand smoke)

Other resources include local chapters of the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society. Both organizations have a wide range of resource materials and comprehensive smoking cessation programs.

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A cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter). The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the other (usually filtered) end, which is inserted in the mouth. They are sometimes smoked with a cigarette holder. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cannabis.

Cigarettes are proven to be highly addictive, as well as a cause of multiple types of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, circulatory disease, birth defects (which include mental and physical disability) and emphysema

A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size, use of processed leaf, and white paper wrapping. Cigars are typically composed entirely of whole-leaf tobacco.

Cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive stimulant which is toxic. They deliver smoke to the lungs immediately and produce a rapid psychoactive effect

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In the European Union some countries have stipulated a decision according to the legal status of e-cigarette products.

• In Austria the e-cigarette is seen as a medical device and the nicotine cartridges are considered a medicinal product. This means that an e-cigarette needs to be CE-marked and the nicotine cartridges must be registered as medicinal products before they can be sold.
• In the United Kingdom, electronic cigarette use is currently unrestricted, with celebrity nightclub Chinawhite allowing use of the devices indoors, where traditional cigarette smoking is prohibited.^[7]
• In The Netherlands the use of the e-cigarette is allowed but advertising the electronic cigarette is forbidden as long as no European legislation or guideline exists

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Cigarette Smoking

• Twenty-three percent of high school students in the United States are current cigarette smokers—23% of females and 22.9% of males.¹
• Approximately 26% of whites, 22% of Hispanics, and 13% of African Americans in high school are current cigarette smokers.¹
• Eight percent of middle school students in this country are current cigarette smokers,² with estimates slightly higher for females (9%) than males (8%).²
• Nine percent of whites, 10% of Hispanics, 8% of African Americans, and 3% of Asian Americans in middle school are current cigarette smokers.²
• Each day in the United States, approximately 4,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 years initiate cigarette smoking, and an estimated 1,140 young people become daily cigarette smokers.³

Other Tobacco Use

• Thirteen percent of high school students are current cigar smokers, with estimates higher for males (18%) than for females (8%).² Nationally, an estimated 5% of all middle school students are current cigar smokers, with estimates of 7% for males and 4% for females.²
• An estimated 10% of males in high school are current smokeless tobacco users,² as are an estimated 4% of males in middle school.²
• An estimated 3% of high school students are current users of bidis; bidi use is more common among males (4%) than females (2%).² An estimated 2% of middle school students are bidi users, with estimates of 3% for males and 2% for females.²

Factors Associated with Tobacco Use among Youth

• Factors associated with youth tobacco use include low socioeconomic status, use and approval of tobacco use by peers or siblings, smoking by parents or guardians, accessibility, availability and price of tobacco products, a perception that tobacco use is normative, lack of parental support or involvement, low levels of academic achievement, lack of skills to resist influences to tobacco use, lower self-image or self-esteem, belief in functional benefits of tobacco use, and lack of self-efficacy to refuse offers of tobacco.^4,5
• Tobacco use in adolescence is associated with many other health risk behaviors, including higher risk sexual behavior and use of alcohol or other drugs.⁴

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E-cigarettes are marketed as a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking,  since most of the harmful material produced by the combustion of tobacco in traditional cigarettes is not present in the atomised liquid of e-cigarettes. They have also been marketed as a way to keep or curtail an addiction to nicotine.^[6]

Various toxicological studies of the electronic cigarettes have been conducted, with some concluding that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than traditional tobacco cigarettes, because they can deliver nicotine into the lungs without the carcinogens and toxicants.^[1] Nevertheless, the devices still deliver nicotine, which is linked to several harmful circulatory diseases.

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