eCigBeat

In it’s breathless attempt to win Big Pharma/Tobacco’s favor and dollars, it seems mainstream news grasps at straws to sound anti-e-cigarette alarms at the drop of a hat.

The latest bit of electronic cigarette sniping is from the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard School of Public Health in a study that claims “researchers found that after five minutes, users showed signs of airway constriction — as measured by several types of breathing tests — and of inflammation.”

While they used regular e-cigs and juiceless digitals – they did not compare the results with traditional tobacco smoking… how scientific!

Little wonder Dr. Josh Bloom of the American Council on Science and Health called it “amateur propaganda”  and ”pure (and not even especially well done) junk — an agenda-based report clumsily masquerading as science.”

Hmmm… whose agenda, one wonders…

More “exploding e-cigarettes”, this time from Muskogee – and Fox News, which means it’s probably baloney.

Apparently, a woman purchased a NJoy disposahle electronic cigarette which exploded as she took it from its package. The story claims it was so powerful, a 15-pound salt lamp fell off a shelf, a light bulb shattered and an ornament knocked from the wall “across the room”.

The woman wasn’t injured, beyond the ringing in one ear and feeling “socked in the eye”.

However, in the comments section of the bogus e-cig blow-up story, the President of NJOY  is quoted as having “immediately investigated… spoken to the woman who was the subject of the story and she has confirmed that, contrary to reports, the device did not ‘explode’ and is fully intact.”

What’s the story?!?

Stay tuned… though I think it’s safe to enjoy an NJoy while you wait…

The hokey-pokey nicotine ban dance just got a little weirder in the “Beaver State”.

It seems Benton County, Oregon’s banned “smoking” – including electronic cigarettes -  in all county-owned facilities and grounds, from parking lots to parks and campgrounds.

Although it appears to apply employees and volunteers and visitors, it seems it’s merely “internal policy” and not an ordinance, unenforceable by law or penalties.

What does this mean?

Well, nothing really. Signs will go up, employees had better obey, but vapers in “natural areas” and parking lots won’t have to.

The Director of the Board of Health’s explanation? The county had an obligation to promote public health.

So it’s… just for appearances?

This Mother’s Day, give Mom the gift that keeps on giving: more life, breath, and a reduced mess-factor. Moms love that.

If your Mother is still a slave of the noxious brown weed, get her a starter kit from one of the many e-cig makers offering special discounts for the occasion.

And while this mostly just means a rebate code for starter kits, one company is offering that little extra touch for mom’s day.

V2Cigs Mother’s Day E-cigarette Kit is reduced in price, features two Special Edition Pink automatic batteries, a pink lanyard and 10  ”Passion Fruit Flavor” cartridges.

She’ll also be getting one of the new Smart Chargers on top of the usual wall adapter.

It’s the little things that mean so much more to Moms everywhere… so go pink!

E-cigarettes are making more inroads to the celebrity circuits this year.

Sexy co-star on HBO’s Entourage series Emmanuelle Chriqui has a hard time quitting analogs, so she’s been vaping a South Beach Smoke electronic cigarette lately.

And other cast members have followed in her footsteps. At least for public consumption…

Speaking of public consumption, The Raven‘s  Edgar Allen Poe, John Cusack, says he quit cigarettes long ago. But he likes “to smoke these in restaurants,” indicating his e-cig. “Just to freak people out.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll takes its toll, and guitarists Eddie Van Halen and Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood have both taken to e-cigarettes.

While 64 year-old Wood seems indestructible and simply pre-emptively switched to his Vapestick, the younger and insanely energetic Van Halen was diagnosed with throat cancer and has had cancerous tissue removed from his tongue on at least one occasion.

There are as many reasons to switch from tobacco to vapor as there are celebrities; just don’t wait for the wrong and worst reason to do it…

In an effort to dispel fears and misconceptions arising from recent tales of exploding e-cigs, White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes set up and recorded 12 attempts to recreate any of these, in any state.

They failed.

Seeing as it’s been batteries that exploded in the incidents, they did everything from extremely over-charging rechargeables to literally applying flames, heating them in toaster ovens as well as hammering, piercing them with nails or actively puffing them as they were being charged.

Nothing.

Considering they used the manufacturer’s original battery, as opposed to the Radio Shack Alkalines one of the recent “victims” reported using, it’s no surprise.

Needless to say, do NOT try anything other than the safe, recommended use of your E-Cigs, whether you’re new or experienced…

In a stunning announcement, Lorillard, maker of Newport, the #1 Menthol tobacco cigarette in the US Market, has bought Blu Electronic Cigarettes for a reported $135 million dollars.

This is on the level of Coca Cola losing the cola wars to Pepsi when they changed their formula. This is huge!

This latest concession to the electronic cigarette market comes on the heels of – or perhaps as a consequence? – NJoy receiving a $20 million injection of development capital; both signs that, despite Legislative bans and various anti-E-Cig movements in the marketplace, E-Cigarettes are having a kick-ass effect on the smoking/vaping landscape…

The tobacco companies are not dumb. They know that if they don’t get in on the market, they will lose precious percentage points of profit…

Besides, E-Cigs as a product are superior to tobacco – they don’t kill off their market one consumer at a time…

Although anti-vaping forces have recently been kvetching about so-called lack of reglementation and the dangers of electronic cigarette use, they have been doing so in a complete vacuum.

Besides industry self-regulation to commercial/consumer standards and safety, some companies, such as V2Cigs.com, have been taking things one step beyond standards.

V2Cigs now offers not just a detailed list of ingredients and their amounts on their packages, you can even certify your e-liquid’s contents and nicotine levels by batch number.

All you need do is submit the batch number found on the e-liquid box in the space provided on their site, and they will email you the exact details.

Truly, V2Cigs is living up to its motto: “Your life. Version 2.0″.

The American Legacy Foundation has determined electronic cigarettes should be removed from store shelves in a recent “policy paper”.

The Foundation, formed after the 1999 Master Settlement Agreement forced Big Tobacco to compensate government for medical spending, helps kids reject tobacco, and adults quit.

Tobacco companies must also make yearly, indefinite payments –  money which goes to, among other organizations, the American Legacy Foundation itself.

Since it would be unseemly to have an anti-tobacco advocacy group funded and depend on money from Big Tobacco, outside grants and such also exist from companies that have nothing to do with tobacco. Like pharmaceutical companies that produce smoking cessation drugs, devices, “the patch” and pills that can cause heart attacks or make you suicidal.

Isn’t the Legacy Foundation anti-smoking? Shouldn’t it keep its slightly dirty nose out of vaping?

Just sayin’…

The latest video review from ECigaretteCritic.com features the actual e-cig pioneer in North America, TheSafeCig.com.

This is the company if you’ll remember that was started by John Cameron, Avatar director James Cameron’s brother.

ECigaretteCritic Girl Donna Harman gives her usual succint, sexy-accented review of The Safe Cig and doesn’t pull punches – refreshingly pointing out drawbacks as well as her opinion of the draw and vapor.

Check out the growing thread of her ECigaretteCritic video reviews in this thread, or on the eCigarette Critic YouTube channel.

If you’re in or near Northbrook, Illinois, your chance to vape for the planet does not end today.

You have the chance to “go digital” and switch to electronic cigarettes free for the next two weeks at the Vapor4Life Vapor Lounge & Store.

The store is located at Sky Harbor Business Park in Northbrook, 4100 Commercial Avenue.

From today until May 2nd, trade in your pack of tobacco cigs for an e-cig, and learn about their technology and products. You can keep up the eco-friendliness by dropping off used batteries in the future thanks to V4L’s membership to Call2Recycle – “the only free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program in North America”.

Forget Earth Day or even Earth Week – make it 2 weeks with the 4!

No matter which event you’re taking part in today, public or private, to celebrate, and reinforce the ecological message of, Earth Day, you’re sure to smoke if you’re a smoker.

This is when electronic cigarettes and vaping come in…

Why not pick today to try your first electronic cigarette?

Just buy a disposable and vape-for-a-day; you can recycle the thing when you’re done, and you won’t be leaving any fiberglass-based butts, ash or smoke in the environment.

If you need to finish that pack of tobacco sticks you paid for, do it tomorrow.

It will probably be your last.

Brace yourselves for more anti-ecig propaganda from the anti-vaping world, people.

A Denver, CO gentleman is suing a known electronic cigarette company after his battery exploded in his face.

However as it turns out, as in the the faulty Florida exploding e-cig story,  it’s another false alarm.

While not being strictly a mod, the Denver litigant’s Puresmoker Prodigy V3.1 e-cig had been fitted with alkaline batteries not suited for the purpose – which he purchased at Radioshack no less.

He will probably lose. Puresmoker’s instruction manual says to use only recommended lithium-ion batteries which they sell.

People must stop trying to save money by “just” changing batteries or at least getting expert advice about modifying products manufactured and tested as safe.

Unless they literally want to save face…

Yes you read right… and that’s not e-cig friendly Birmingham, England, either.

Contrary to the recent currents in electronic cigarette municipal legislations throughout the country, yesterday Birmingham, Alabama’s city council voted to exempt e-cigs from their public smoking bans.

This is in a public court, where city councilmen and women have been trying to pass the smoking ban for months, but quite reasonably listened to objections to including vaping in the bill.

So they quite explicitly exempted e-cigarettes from the ban. One business owner even went so far as to say he thought they helped people to quit smoking.

Thumbs-up, cheers and vapes to Birmingham!

While we all know every electronic cigarette is the best and most popular brand, this might actually come to be with one company.

NJoy Electronic Cigarettes recently announced it was getting a $20,000,000 (yes, that’s twenty million dollars) from venture capital investors Catterton Growth Partners.

Ostensibly it is to help the company expand, propagate it’s brand, and basically “get bigger”.

But this is also a clear sign things in the electronic cigarette business are about to get serious; the money to be had is serious, and it’s out there, and industry wants to take it away from big tobacco.

So get ready: for more competition between the smokeless cig companies, and for tobacco to fight back…

A recent flurry of electronic cigarette bannings and coverage in the mainstream media, not unexpected, has brought to back strange myths about e-cigs.

For example, they repeatedly bring up a faulty FDA review that claims vapor-cigs contain a substance also used in anti-freeze and nitro-samines (so do cigarettes and in much higher amounts).

They also quote sources saying vapers can never quite know what they’re getting in electronic-cigs, which leads to this new claim – that electronic cigs are not regulated.

What they mean is they’re self-regulated, and not by the FDA.

However there’s studies that back up the claims of voluntary industry regulatory groups (ECITA in the UK and TVECA in the US), that vaping is safe and vapor contains safe (and few) ingredients, compared to the thousands in FDA-regulated tobacco.

The leading electronic cigarette company in the industry has announced a new vaping device that will surpass even it’s flagship e-cig, already the best of its kind, bar none, known particularly for its thick and satisfying vapor, which is the best produced by any brand of electronic cigarette.

Which company is that? Which e-cigarette? Go on, guess…

Give up? Well, it’s all of them. All “personal nicotine vaporizer” companies say this about themselves, their products or accessories or their latest variations on either. This is particularly evident in their press releases, which can start off sounding journalistic, but inevitably give themselves away the instant a “leader” company’s “best” widget is mentioned…

This is the best E-Cig Blog on the web. Ok?

With Easter, you’d think electronic cigarette makers would’ve hopped into promotional high gear.

But no…at least it hasn’t been very loud.

But GreenSmoke has started something better than just Easter-marketing. The company is celebrating green, health, clean air, and Spring in general with a giveaway-a-day contest called their “Spring for Spring” contest.

The all-vegetable-glycerin, pro-recycling E-Cig company will be giving away a free Starter Kit every day for the month of April – and all you need do is add your name and email.

Further, Facebook and Twitter can quadruple your chances if you share their Giveaway page. A Tweet will get you an extra chance to enter, and a Facebook share will give two!

And there’s an additional Grand Prize in the shape of a road bike… but what smoker would want to exercise when he can vape himself in shape first?

When you’re involved in the vaping community, it’s hard to remember a time when you didn’t know what electronic cigarettes were or you were unaware that they were safe, healthier and smokeless means of taking in nicotine.

That’s why virtually every article even marginally out in the mainstream that mentions e-cigs has to go into an explanatory paragraph about them.

Which is why, for example, when reality-tv star Kyle Richards (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills ) vaped in public and Twittered about her e-smoke, shocked fans objected and celebrity rag-mags had to appease readers that Richards wasn’t a smoker.

Vapers should be able to vape wherever they can – but it seems that another motive behind Ecig-bans is to keep information out of the public mind. Which is a shame…

Think of all the ink and time it’s wasting…

Electronic cigarette makers seem to always compete on technical grounds for innovation and advancement, be it custom-colored e-cigs to longer-lasting batteries.

But V2Cigs.com has decided to address another vaper concern: shipping – or rather, the arrival of your e-cigarette order.

Dealing with both USPS and UPS now allows V2 customers more options and better tracking – both in the US and internationally, simply by logging into their siteV2Cigs account or directly at the shipping sites.

The company emphasizes their desire to relieve the suspense or stress of not knowing exactly when you next order is coming in and or if they’ll run out of juice before it does.

After all, traditional tobacco is everytwhere, and easy to succumb to.