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Through My Eyes

Through My Eyes

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2015-03-13
Vaping and Twisping. Does it mean anything to you? How about eliquid, sub-ohming and ejuice? Oh, and what about cloud chasing, dripping and nicotine junkie?

Well this all has something to do with the growing trend of 'vaping' that is hitting the social circle near you. While most of my friends have tried to stop smoking and succeeded, there are still a large number of those who merrily puff away, and why not? I was a happy smoker for longer than I am willing to admit and let me be totally frank with you here; I am not one hundred per cent certain that I will never pick the habit up again!

Like many of my generation, I come from a long heritage of chain smokers and even though I fully understand the health risk of smoking conventional brands, I still believe, it's my personal choice, whether I will or I won't.My best friend Tony has been a smoker for most of his life. In fact I do not remember Tony without his Camels. Unlike me, Tony never attempted to quit, he was happy smoking and did not care what the side affects were.

Last July, he just quitno Smoke Endersno patches and no Champix, in fact he did not even need the gum. He moved to electronic cigarettes and so did his entire circle of acquaintances.Personally, I can't stand the smell of the scented vapour, for some strange reason I started gagging the last time we found each other behind closed doors and he was puffing away.

On the other hand I have no issue with cigarettes or even cigar smoke, however I detest the smell of vapour. So last week when I 'rashed' him and suggested he should quit smoking all together, he blew up."Do you even know anything about vaping?" he demanded to know. Ok I admit that I don't but I would never, ever choose the fake for the real thing, it's all or nothing for me.

So not wanting to be an ignorant friend and citizen of the world I decided to Google it and boy oh boy there is just so much information.

So what did I learn? Besides the fact that there are now 'Vapour Games', where contenders, known as 'Cloud Chasers' smoke a highly concentrated food grade glycerine with 'eliquid' or 'ejuice' which are the liquid flavours and nicotine additives that produce massive clouds of smoke - the 'Cloud Chasers' then compete who can make the best vapour cloud tricks.

I also learned that E-cigarettes are seen as a safer alternative to smoking because they are free of the tobacco and so the tar and other chemicals that make normal cigarettes so deadly.

The Tobacco-industry scientists argue that e-cigarettes deliver lower amounts of nicotine than regular cigarettes, are less toxic and don't expose others to second-hand smoke.

A recent study from France's National Consumers Institute, however, concluded that e-cigarettes are "potentially carcinogenic" because some brands contain levels of formaldehyde that approach those of conventional cigarettes.

"Research on the health risks and efficacy of e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation aid is still in the early stages," said one of the doctors. "We should not assume they are safe simply because they appear to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes."

Anyway, I am not about to start twisping or vaping but if you are keen to do it, why not go and see my best friend Tony at Beira Alta restaurant in Ballito, he has some really cool vaping gadgets and flavours galore.