Copd And Vaping

...if you do nothing.

Federal Flavor Ban & Vape Taxation
Goes Up for Vote This
Thursday 2/27/2020 in the House.
HR 2339

Go here to notify your Congress people and the President (easy peasy)...
Vaping Prohibition & Taxation is On the Table in Congress

From CASAA...
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"This [Federal Flavor Ban] legislation is being supported by an army of Bloomberg-funded anti-harm reduction groups to the tune of $160,000,000.

At the same time, it is likely that a tax bill, HR 4742, which is attempting to enact tax parity between vapor products and combustible cigarettes, will also be taken up by the full House."
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Text - H.R.4742 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on nicotine used in vaping, etc.
‘‘“(h) Nicotine.—On taxable nicotine, manufactured in or imported into the United States, there shall be imposed a tax equal to the dollar amount specified in section 5701(b)(1) (or, if greater, $50.33) per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine (and a proportionate tax at the like rate on any fractional part thereof).”
Click to expand...

You wanna pay $2,780.00 extra (plus any state taxes)
for 1 liter of 100mg/ml nic base?

You wanna be forced to vape "tobacco" flavors only?​

By all means, do nothing.

​
 

This is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping is a part of it, so would like to share it.

When I was 57, I was obese and pathetically out of shape. I was about 240 lbs. (height: 5'7") and in a size 40 pants. I was smoking about 3 packs a day at that time.

I had to have my heart and lungs checked for a surgery because if diverticulitis.

The testing revealed that I had COPD, and had the lung capacity of a person with 1 lung. It also revealed that I had had a heart attack at some point.

I survived the surgery, but they informed me that if I did not quit smoking, start exercising, and lose weight, that I would not be around much longer.

After I recovered enough from the surgery I started walking. I could barely walk a single mile at a slow pace before feeling like I was going to die and had to lie down to recover. I kept doing it no matter how bad it felt, and I did it 2, 3, sometimes 4 times per day.

Eventually I could walk 2 miles at a faster pace, then 3 miles, then 5. It started actually feeling good. I got a fitness tracker that monitored my heart rate and pace, and started power walking at least once a day.

I vaped years before but fell off the wagon, so I decided to start vaping again. It took about 6 months to gradually smoke less and vape more until I was just vaping.

Eventually I could not keep my heart rate up enough from just power walking so I started running. I could only run for about 30 seconds at a slow pace at first, but I followed the same process as I did for walking, and worked my way up to being able to run 5 miles non stop.

the beginning of this year I completed a 12 week half marathon training program, and my final run for the program, I ran 13.57 miles.

I just turned 62 this month, have lost about 60 lbs., went from a size 40 to a size 32 pants, and have not smoked a cigarette in going on 3 years now.

My last stress test they told me that my heart had actually healed itself from the heart attack, and that it was strong and healthy now. I also had one of those tests where you blow into the plastic tube to see how strong your lungs are, and when I blew into it, the person said... "wow... you got some healthy lungs".

Also, my resting heart rate went from the high 80's to the mid 50's over the last 5 years. This means my heart is getting stronger because it can pump more blood per beat, and does not have to beat as many times per minute to pump the same amount of blood.

Like I said... this is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping has helped along the way.  

I am very curious. There is a LOT of talk about not knowing the long term effects of vaping. It has only really been around for a little more than 10 years.

Who here has been vaping the longest? I have been vaping for about 8 years. I have seen no bad side effects or health problems. It has dramatically improved my breathing, endurance, and just generally feeling much better.

Do we have anyone that is in the 10+ year category? 10+ years won't make the doctors happy but I think that is long enough to start picking away at the "don't know long term effect" garbage.  

I "successfully" quit vaping for 2 month. It actually wasn't that bad, I was able to fill the void with music/gum/walks. Right now I have 0 physical temptation to vape.

But there has been many stressful situations and I feel without the vape it made everything harder. To me, it's not that I had to have it, but it was something enjoyed. And taking it away made life a little less fun. It's like saying you can never eat candy or drink coffee again.

The only reason I quit was for the health benefits. I heard vaping can cause COPD but then I also hear it's a lot less harmful than smoking. But here's the thing that really demotivates one from quitting vaping:

We are not sure how harmful is it (if at all)

There are many other things bad for us in life, like air pollution, asbestos, etc. Is it worth giving up something that you enjoy for a marginal health benefit? I vape at a low wattage so I don't think I'm getting lots of formaldehydes.
I'm really thinking about going back to vaping. I think I'll vape a few more years and if news comes out by then that vaping is truly really bad, then I'll quit...

I don't know... it's not like we are going to live forever even if we don't vape/smoke/do anything unhealthy...  

I know this is useless for most of you and if the mods want to delete it please do but I am so frustrated with the media and the politicians and I have no outlet for this, so here we are.

I actually have never smoked or vaped (aside from a trial puff here and there), but my wife and mother both have smoked and do vape. I'm on here because I'm the research and order guy.

They switched from smoking to vaping in 2007 almost at the same time, so it's been 12 years for them.

My mom was a smoker for 50ish years, and as a waitress, she was at about 2 packs a day. She's always had fairly good health because she worked on it, but as she got older you could hear the "smoker's cough" develop and just see the symptoms of aging and the early signs of lung issues. One of her sisters has COPD and another died of lung cancer. She swapped to e-cigs and never had a relapse to cigarettes. Within a year the cough was gone. She is 75 and most people think she is in her 50s. She is active and in great health with only mild diabetes (controlled with diet and I think the minimum dose of a pill, no insulin). She has had chest x-rays and a few other exams and they doubt her when she tells them she is an ex-smoker.

My wife has a similar story. Lighter smoker for a shorter time, but same results. Better health, lungs fully healed from smoking. No side effects from vaping.

Oh and my wife's father was a huge smoker and used e-cigs to completely quit smoking/vaping altogether when the pills/patches/gum wouldn't work at all.

Now, they both utilize products from vapor4life.com that resemble cigarettes and use the "light or ultralight" (I wanna say 1.8% or 1.1%... something like that) equivalent nicotine level. They don't have the giant boxes the "kids" use that produce a room full of vape smoke to be edgy and cool. They vape pretty much the same times they'd take a smoke break though I think less often really... I think they take fewer puffs maybe a little more often? I dunno, it's hard to remember since they haven't smoked in 12 years. My wife will hold hers casually hidden in her hand and get a couple puffs during movies and slowly let the vapor escape and NOBODY knows. Not even me sitting next to her.

Their health is so much better. My mom uses a plain nicotine flavor that tastes like her Winston lights did and my wife has a Menthol that tastes close to her Salem Slim Light 100s. Neither were fond of the fun flavors. I got some 0 nicotine grape the first year and puffed on it once in a while and it was neat (not really inhaling, more like a cigar or a pipe) and that was that.

I am so pissed off at the Trumps and the media for their generalized reporting and the banning of products. I'm pissed at the people/kids who use vaping like its a toy and fun hipster trend and got it banned from airplanes and restaurants. I look at my mom who most likely would have died of lung cancer or be on oxygen by now if not for vaping and I just want to punch these people in the face. How can single digit deaths, which I understand was using sketchy products anyway, trigger fear and a ban when the cigarette companies kill MILLIONS and cause cancer (to smokers and people who are adjacent to smokers via 2nd hand smoke) just have to put a warning label on their product?

Anyway, I'm rambling. I don't know where this goes. Maybe it'll spark discussion. Maybe it'll be deleted and I'll be told I'm an idiot. Maybe someone who isn't sure if vaping will help them quit smoking will see three success stories and take a step in the right direction. I dunno...

Fight the good fight people.  

I posted this in 2016 in this thread: Starting to smell smoke after years of vaping?

Some of the replies freaked me out and the phantom smoke smell went away eventually though I don't know exactly how. I received some questions from other people so I thought I should follow up on what happened in my situation.

About three years ago I ended up going to the doctor because I couldn't sleep and was referred to a sleep specialist and found out I had sleep apnea. I had a week on their sleep monitor and was told I stopped breathing hundreds (or thousands? can't remember, but a lot!) of times a night and could suffocate and die at any time. Then they wanted me to buy a cpap machine and be hooked up to this thing for the rest of my life, like a pod in The Matrix, and pay for all these supplies regularly. After a week on the cpap machine I was almost suffocated by the machine multiple times and I woke up gasping for air, either because I knocked the mask loose in my sleep or because they said they had to adjust settings over the internet.

I knew the cpap wasn't going to work for me so I took it all back and never went back to the doctor (I was "only" out the $1000 or so for all the testing and what not). From reading about sleep apnea and my own logic, it made sense if I was overweight that my nasal passages and throat could be enlarged also and could be causing my breathing problems. I totally changed my diet and never ate fast food or processed food again and had to cut back to 1500-1700 calories a day to lose about 2-6 lbs of weight a week. I lost almost half of my body weight over the course of 1.5 years and my sleep apnea went away. Over that period I also switched up my vaping hardware and juice so I don't know when the phantom smoke smell disappeared, but it did, and luckily I didn't have brain cancer or anything else some people suggested.

I know weight isn't the only thing that causes sleep apnea, but in my case it did. Now I actually get REM sleep and when I get to bed on time, I'm fully rested. From what the doctors told me, before all this I was being woken constantly trying to breath. I was tired 24 hours a day no matter how much "sleep" I got and would fall asleep just sitting down for a few minutes anywhere. Sometimes I had to pull off the road for a 10 minute nap or risk falling asleep while driving. Driving long distances was misery. Now when I think back I can only describe those years as a walking dream. That's what it felt like being deprived of sleep for years.

It's hard to believe that obstructed breathing wouldn't have contributed to the sense of smell, but it was either that or just switching up my vaping. I believe the weight had something to do with it.  

The majority of us know that vaping is at least 95-100% better for our health, than smoking was. And switching to vaping from smoking has worked for us.

I'd love to see a roll call of how long it's been since you last smoked a cigarette. Whether it is 10 years, 10 days, or 10 hours, please post

For me, it is 3 years and 19 days  

Yup, two years since I set fire to a tobacco tube, after 46 years of a 2 pack-a-day habit starting at age 14 ...

My dentist in Mexico gave me a cigalike after pulling two molars on May 10th 2013, it worked for me from day one ...

I am a practiced stealth vaper, enjoy my new hobby everywhere and anywhere with complete satisfaction. At home and in my car I enjoy 50 percent VG juice and a modest cloud. But in public, recognizing the "brittle people" who have been thoroughly conditioned to openly attack anything that "looks like smoking", I vape 100 percent PG juice with total impunity. No evidence, no "crime" ...

After two years of vaping, my lung function has vastly improved, and Parkinsons symptoms are noticeably diminished. Now retired and with more energy that I have had in years, I can enjoy my free time thanks to 24 months of detox from tobacco additives ...

A salute to all of those on the front lines of the battle to protect vaping, and to expose the blatantly false media campaign to demonize this life-saving innovation ...

Join CASAA and make a contribution to a noble cause !  

Hey kids!

I have been so horribly absent from here over the last 5-6 years. Long story short, quit the stinkers on 8-22-10 and haven’t looked back. Vaping has grown and changed so much during the 11 years I have vaped, I won’t even bore you with the details of what gear was like when I started vaping. You fellow veterans know. It took a whole different level of commitment than it does today, because NOTHING had the power, endurance, or availability it does today.

I have been a 8mg/ml vaper for the last 10 years. I did kick it up to 12mg for a bit when I went through a divorce 5 years ago. There have been so many vape ban scare events that I am stocked up on supplies well. I have made my own juice for 10 years so my stash of nic is good to go. I can decrease the mg/ml if that situation ever arises, but at age 44, I think I have enough to last me at least a good 20-25 years at my current mg level. If I drop the level down, I think I am good to go until the nursing home days come calling.

The biggest part of why I wanted to post here again is:
1. After being a smoker for 16 years, I used smoking for every stressor life threw at me. Since I started vaping, I have survived undergrad, my masters, and my doctorate degree. ZERO temptation to go back to the stinkies. Went through a very unexpected divorce. Never tempted to return to Marlboro. If you commit to the process, it does work. I got remarried a year ago. My husband enjoys the occasional cigar and bourbon on the deck. I can hardly stand to smell him when he enjoys a stogie, which is thankfully only a few times a year. I realize how gross it must have been to be around me when I smoked 1-2 PPD. It does suck in the beginning but giving up the stinkies is worth it.

2. 11 years in, zero health issues. I am a physically fit and busy person anyways. But zero lung issues from my years of smoking or my years of vaping. My current PCP doesn’t even know I vape. I can hike with zero problems. I ride a Harley, and do cross country trips on it, and always stop to hike in places to find rando waterfalls and whatnot. I was in the mountains for a week this spring and zero breathing issues or short of air like I used to have when I smoked stinkies. I did find my vape hit a little harder though and I vaped less! Bonus to vaping is I can vape while I am riding my motorcycle, I don’t have to pull over to smoke lol. The Harley is a new hobby since I quit smoking, so I don’t know what that would have been like, but I see fellow riders pulled over to smoke all the time. Glad that isn’t me!

3. I am a mental health provider. I prescribe meds for depression and anxiety and all the other mental health disorders all day long. And I am a HUGE advocate of vaping to patients who want to discuss it. Many mental health patients have a nicotine dependence. I always tell them I will not be the one barking at them to quit, as it is their choice and whatever consequences result from smoking, they are already aware of those and it isn’t my place to preachy preach about it. But I do tell them I used to smoke, I quit 11 years ago, and I have vaped ever since. I have shown several my device and tank, I refer them to local vape shops that I know are good and helpful, and I refer them all to check out this site. I get pissed when I hear how many reply with their PCP telling them how vaping is so bad. The medical world has been brainwashed pretty good, lemme tell ya. I am an outside the box kind of provider, I don’t buy into all the malarkey the “experts” want to feed us. I won’t go into covid and the current state of affairs in our country, but if more healthcare professionals researched instead of following the masses and “expert rules”, our healthcare world would be a better place. Pharma and the FDA annoy the hell out of me. Anyways, there are more of us “good guys” in healthcare though that do advocate and support than some think, but we are still a minority, with the majority being asleep at the wheel about non FDA approved harm reduction and cessation devices. Every time I see a PCP start Chantix I want to scream. It has about a 2% success rate at best from my personal observations. Anyways, the TLDR here is I support the cause and fight for education about vaping every day in my office.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support and help from so many of you fellow veterans back in the day. I am still in shock at how much this industry has evolved in a relatively short period of time. Nic salts…..who knew that would ever be a thing! The one discouraging thing is seeing how many companies have closed up shop anticipating the regulations. I loved my freedom smokes for my nicotine. But, that is the nature of retail period, some survive and some don’t. With USPS delaying the mail ban, I think most could have hung on a little longer. But I don’t run their business or know their projections and models and revenue, so I have no place to judge. ❤️ Vape on friends! I will try to stop by and visit you all more often. This always has been and will always be a great community!  

I've been vaping with v4l and v2 e-cigs for a couple years mostly the ego style ones. I love messing with all the technology I have and I'm very hands on so I figured I'd stop limiting myself. I bought a Sigelei 100w Plus, Kanger Sub Tank Mini, and a Mutation X V3 RDA.

WOW

I feel stupid for not doing this earlier. I've been vaping 12mg for a couple months now, but bought 6mg for the Sub Tank and RDA and that is even too strong! I diluted it with 100% PG to make it 3mg and it is much better. I couldn't be happier. No dry hits.. no leaking... all the problems I've dealt with over the past couple years are gone and I'm experiencing vaping like never before.

Success!!

Plus I finally convinced my GF to start vaping on New Years Eve and she hasn't looked back. She's using the V2 Pro Series 3 which she loves and we even found some really good house made flavors at a local vaping shop that we really liked. She got cotton candy and I got cigar. I didn't think a vape shop would have juice that good and they even made it fresh right in front of us. To my surprise no steeping required!

Alright I'm rambling. I will leave you with this pic.. and to all you musicians out there that is a ART Pro MPA II preamp with genuine Telefunken tubes from the 60's.

20150316_191947 by joshfiricano, on Flickr