Ex-smoker considers electronic cigarettes a life-saver, plans to open vaping store-- make money

He was 14 when he rode his bike to a shop on Linglestown Road and bought his first cigarette.

Keith Kepler was hooked. He smoked for the next four decades.

That all changed late in December when Kepler, by accident, walked into a store that sold electronic cigarettes. That was the last time he had a cigarette.

“Vaping has changed my life so much for the better,” Kepler said. “I smoked for 43 years, and I will never smoke another cigarette. This is a great viable and enjoyable alternative to killing yourself with cigarettes, and you still get your nicotine in a lot better flavor.”

Millions of former smokers have embraced e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking. The battery-powered devices heat up a flavored liquid to deliver nicotine without any of the tobacco and chemicals of cigarettes, emitting a vapor instead of secondhand smoke.

Since they arrived on the market in 2009, along with millions of converts, e-cigarettes have generated scrutiny and concern that they are not as benign and safe as they are made out to be. Fueled by those concerns, lawmakers and health and substance abuse experts are increasingly calling for stricter state and federal regulation of the devices.

E-cigarette converts such as Kepler, meanwhile, can’t help singing the praises of a device that, he says, has had a profound impact in every aspect of his life. He is even investing money in it and opening up his own vaping shop.

“I feel so strongly about how positively it has affected my life and made it better,” Kepler said. “It was given to me and has changed my life so much in a positive way, I want to share it with people. I want to say you don’t have to stick those horrible things in your body.”

Neither Pennsylvania nor Washington have passed legislation to regulate the sale and public use of e-cigarettes, and what ordinances there are from one jurisdiction to another, have been passed at the local level.

"This is a great viable and enjoyable alternative to killing yourself with cigarettes." - Keith Kepler
Kepler said most e-cigarette users abide by self-imposed and common sense decisions.

“You gotta use your head,” he said. “I would not go into restaurant and vape at the table. It gives too many people that like to pick things apart ammunition. Anyone who wants to walk into a PTA meeting and start vaping ... somebody has to talk to them about their sense of judgment.”

Kepler finds that most people misunderstand e-cigarettes. The majority, he said, are under the impression that what he is expelling from his lungs is secondhand smoke. It’s a water vapor produced from a flavored liquid laced with nicotine.

Keith Kepler of Susquehanna Township shows how to use an electronic cigarette vaping device. A vaping device uses a liquid mixed with small amounts of nicotine that gets vaporized in a battery powered atomizer. The vapor created is inhaled and exhaled, simulating the experience of smoking.

“The air freshener you use at home is more harmful for you than what’s in vaping,” Kepler said.

To date no medical studies have drawn conclusive findings as to the potential risks of e-cigarettes.

Kepler won’t use his vaping devices in front of his grandchildren, or in some public places, like a public bus, but he did recently turn one on at a Costco.

“Nobody said a word to me,” he said. “You gotta use your head.”

Kepler favors what he calls common sense legislation to regulate e-cigarettes, which currently fall under no state nor federal law.

The Food and Drug Administration, which has yet to issue regulation on e-cigarettes, is being urged by lawmakers to impose restrictions for the sale and public use of e-cigarettes.

Kepler supports a state Senate bill that would restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to people 18 and older. Senate Bill 1055, sponsored by Sen. Timothy Solaby, a Democrat from western Pennsylvania, is pending approval from the chamber before it moves on to the state House.

Solaby said he's heard from a number of manufacturers who support the bill.

"I don't think they were initially targeting kids but unfortunately kids have become mesmerized by this and have started using it," he said.

On the other hand, Kepler is opposed to legislation that would impose taxes and any restrictions that would discourage adult smokers from trying them.

“I don’t want to see legislation that scares people away from it,” Kepler said. “Smoking is bad. There’s no two ways about it. I did it for 43 years.

"I have so much more energy. I sleep better. I’m able to do my duties better. I want to see as many people as possible have the opportunity to experience this and not get scared away because somebody uninformed about product says they are smoking in public place. No, they are not.”

Kepler admits he's addicted to the mild stimulant in cigarettes and e-cigarettes. “Yes, I need nicotine, just like I need my caffeine in the morning,” he said.

He has no intention of going back to smoking. Back in December, when he picked up his first e-cigarette, he gave away his pack of cigarettes.

“My wife still has a half a pack that she is going to keep as memorabilia,” he said.

Downtown’s Vaping Pioneers Aim High- Bieber's smoking face is fucking hot!

Melissa Bailey Photo MELISSA BAILEY PHOTO Instead of smoking a cigarette, Art Boivin, Jr. bellied up to a downtown “flavor bar” and took a drag of Neon Cloud on his Kanger eVod VV.

“It tastes like heaven,” declared Boivin.

Boivin (pictured) is one of the regulars at White Buffalo Vapors at 748 Chapel St., the city’s first and only e-cigarette lounge.

The shop has been quietly building a customer base for several months at its digs across from 360 State St. and the Elm City Market. By summer’s end, the store will expand to sell espresso and tea and to serve as a venue for open-mic poetry and music, according to Sammy Chamino.


Chamino, Zabar and Young.
Chamino is one of three 20-somethings who opened the business together in March, getting in on a craze that is sweeping the nation. The owners—Chamino, Sasha Zabar and Max Young—are best friends and e-cigarette enthusiasts who have used vaping, or smoking e-cigarettes, as a means of quitting smoking.

Now they’re hoping to ride the vaping mania along a historic stretch of lower Chapel Street that has shown signs of reviving while also facing its share of vacant buildings and quality-of-life problems.

Monday evening found the White Buffalo trio working behind the “flavor bar,” serving customers free samples of “juice.”

Boivin sat down at the bar, which has a “no smoking” sign. He ordered a combo he calls “Neon Cloud”—a mix of Neon Iguana and Crimson Cloud, two house-made flavors of fruity “juice.” The juice is a mix of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavoring, water and nicotine that White Buffalo Vapors mixes in a kitchen space near Mechanic Street. Boivin filled his battery-powered e-cigarette with Neon Cloud and pressed a button to light up.

He inhaled a vapor containing 1.8 percent, or 18 milligrams per milliliter, of nicotine. He said his goal is to cut down to zero.

Boivin, like many customers entering the threshold of the “vapothecary,” is trying to quit smoking cigarettes. A friend turned him on to vaping, or inhaling nicotine in a vapor instead of as smoke. This way, he can control the amount of nicotine per puff—and eventually cut down to nicotine-free juice.

Boivin, who’s 39, of Watertown, smoked for 20 years. He said he has basically quit smoking—as long as his e-cig is charged up and he doesn’t run out of juice. He motioned to a drawstring backpack, which he said was full of juice vials he bought at White Buffalo Vapors. He said he visits the lounge once or twice every day.

Boivin showed up at the shop Monday with a friend, Giovanni Zurlo.

Zurlo, who smoked for 20 years, said he tried all sorts of ways to quit: patches, gums, “hitting myself in the head.” Now Zurlo has gone two months without lighting a cigarette. Instead, he picked up his double-coiled e-cigarette and took a puff of Carrie, one of the flavors White Buffalo Vapors makes in-house. (It’s named after Young’s mom.) The dosage of nicotine was low—just 0.6 percent. It tasted like kiwi and blueberry, he said.


Those types of fruity flavors have prompted warnings from U.S.  Sen. Dick Blumenthal and others about the dangers of marketing nicotine to kids. As it stands, e-cigarettes are unregulated.

Chamino, a self-described “bleeding-heart liberal,” said he supports regulating the industry. He said he has banned e-cigarette sales to minors in his store ahead of a federal movement to do so.

But he said he does not agree with critics who couch vaping as unsafe. It’s much better for you than traditional smoking, he argued, because there’s no combustion and no tar.

Chamino and Zabar said they both used to smoke. They were healthy guys, they said, except for the smoking habit. Zabar said he started to “feel dirty” from smoking. His hands smelled; his girlfriend urged him to stop. Six months ago, he did—by sucking in vapor in flavors like Nectar by Adam Bomb and Cloud Science Alpha by Big Teleos.

Chamino, who’s 26, grew up in New Jersey along with Young. Chamino said he moved to New Haven to live with some friends. He met Zabar in a political science class at Southern Connecticut State University; Zabar played Mitt Romney, and Chamino played Obama, in a mock debate. Chamino then recruited Young to move to New Haven and live here.

Young (pictured), who was deep into vaping before his friends, came up with the idea to open an e-cigarette store and lounge. Vapothecaries were exploding across the country, but not in New Haven. They found a vacant storefront across from the 360 State apartment tower, in a building owned by Chris Nicotra’s Olympia Properties. The storefront used to house the Las Vegas cell phone shop. It had been vacant for six months when the White Buffalo moved in.

The trio replaced the floor with wood and exposed the brick walls. They opened in mid-March with subtle signage that is most visible to people waiting right outside the door for the public bus. The store serves a mix of customers who reflect the range of people getting into e-cigarettes. Some enter in search of a $50 starter kit to help them kick the smoking habit. Others are hobbyists looking to scoop up a $250 Hana Modz e-cigarette device with a 30-watt chip, and load in gothic-imaged flavors like Suicide Bunny’s Mother’s Milk, which tastes like strawberry custard.

The store sits on a block of Chapel that represents its own mix of discount and gourmet. On one side of the street lie the organic fruits of the Elm City Market and vintage dresses at the English Market. On the other side, where White Buffalo roams, a Dollar Tree is moving into a long-vacant commercial space.

Chamino said he has been trying to get the city to power-wash the sidewalk on his side of the street so it looks more appealing. The bus stop right outside the shop has been a mixed blessing, Zabar (pictured) said: It has brought both down-and-out loiterers and valued customers.

This summer, Chamino and his partners plan to tear down the shop’s drop-ceiling and finish renovating the back half of the store. They plan to start serving espresso and tea, start up open mic nights and movie nights, and open up a back patio for customers.

“We want to have a community space,” Chamino said.

He envisions the store as “the healthy alternative to the Owl Shop,” the popular cigar-and-live-music joint on College Street: instead of cigars, e-cigs. Instead of alcohol, coffee and tea.

If the plan goes well, who knows, the White Buffalo may expand beyond New Haven.

“Next year,” declared Young, “in Jerusalem.”

E-Cigs picking up steam right across Canada and abroad --Seems like Katty Perr's mouth!

The new craze these days is tobacco harm reduction. Smokers are turning to electronic cigarettes as an aid to quit smoking.

So, how do you vape? That’s the question companies who offer electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are asking consumers these days.
It seems that the tobacco harm reduction movement is in full swing and droves of companies are cashing in on the new trend. Picking an e-cigarette over a real cigarette appears to be the lesser of the two evils.
Mark Bradshaw, who lives in Toronto, ON, had his first cigarette when he was in his early teens.
Since he started smoking he quickly became a pack to a pack-and-a-half a day user.
He totally regrets starting the bad habit.
However, the 44 year-old got a stern warning from his doctor only a few months ago.
“My doc told me I had some scar tissue on my left lung which could lead to a hole in the lung,” he says during an interview. “He told me if I kept on smoking I would soon die. That was one of the scariest moments of my life. I knew I had to quit right away.”
On his way home from the doctor, he stopped in at a local Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up the nicotine patch and some chewing gum to begin his smoke-free journey.
He then came across a display of e-cigs (nicotine free) and decided to buy one and try it out.
“I had nothing to lose,” he says. “Something told me to give the e-cig thing a shot, and it’s the best thing I ever did.”
Since using e-cigs over the last 12 weeks, he hasn’t touched a cigarette.
“I will be honest e-cigs in Canada don’t have any nicotine, so my body was missing it for the first month. It was tough – I had some miserable cravings but I got through them. I actually chewed on some nicotine gum while using the e-cigs and it worked. The new products out there really help with the actual hand to mouth habit of smoking.”
Just about every place across the nation - convenience stores, gas stations, malls, and drug stores – is now selling e-cigs. The ‘vape’ experience is in hardcore; much like smoking was years ago.
The e-cig business is expected to be a $14-billion industry within three years’ time, according to Wells Fargo.
At drug stores, like Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall, e-cigs are normally sold in the Nicotine Replacement Therapy Sections.
There are a wide variety of brands out there that people are using and notable include Dune, GetVapes, and Nano by Jasper & Jasper.
Steve Muzaic, Vice President for Nano E-Cigs by Jasper & Jasper, says his company is seeing its sales grow each month.
“The numbers of e-cig users keeps on climbing,” he says. “Tobacco harm reduction is the new trend and people are turning to e-cigs as a safer alternative to smoking.”
He adds, “Cigarettes are known to contain hundreds of chemicals, which are carcinogenic. Products like Nano allows users to feel like they are smoking, but they’re not taking in any of the harmful chemicals.”
Products being offered start from about $10 and the ones that required replacement cartridges are between $75 and $120.
Each e-cig lasts for about two to three days for an average smoker, which about is two packs.
Health professionals in Canada are keeping a close eye on the e-cig movement.
John Chenery, Manager of Communications for the Lung Association in Ontario, indicates that they want more “research into the potential health effects of electronic cigarettes.”
Jennifer Miller, vice-president of health promotion with the Lung Association states, “I think we owe it to millions of Canadians who are addicted to tobacco products. If there’s a product out there that may have some merit to bring down those numbers, we have to look at it.”
“Nano by Jasper & Jasper can’t claim that e-cigs actually get people off of tobacco,” says Muzaic. “But we can safely say that people are using them and trying them out as they feel they are safer than smoking real cigarettes.”
The federal government of Canada has collected nearly $25-billion over the last two years from the sale of tobacco.
Around the world the e-cig fad is taking off big time.
According to the UK government nearly 1.3 million smokers have quit cigarettes when using c-cigs. In the US, that number is nearly 4 million. No data on this matter is available yet in Canada.
Health Canada at present is not supporting the sale and use of e-cigs, but they too still want to research and look in the products offered more closely.

E-Cigarettes: A Rising Trend Among College Youth

E-cigarette users may feel that they are different from traditional smokers. The college doesn’t feel the same way.

The new trend is known as “vaping” and by most, is not considered the same as smoking. All California State University and UC campuses are in the process of banning electronic cigarettes.

Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, invented the first nicotine based e-cigarette in 2003. Most thought that e-cigs would be a fad, but they are growing in popularity more than ever. It is believed that e-cigarettes will surpass the amount of sales for regular cigarettes within the next 10 years.

One can go to almost any smoke shop and find refillable “e-cig” starter kits, complete the battery, tank and charger for anywhere from $25 to $50, well within even the most frugal college student’s budget.

Even cheaper disposable e-cigs are seen more frequently than they used to be at mini-marts and gas stations.

Some go all out and spend hundreds of dollars on vaping materials, buying different modifications and customizing their e-cigarette hardware.

Many people also argue that e-cigarettes are healthier. The “smoke” produced by e-cigarettes is roughly equivalent to water vapor, which is why many people believe so.

A nicotine solution is mixed with propylene glycol, which is known as “e-fluid”. It is then heated up and released as vapor through the “filter” when the person inhales or holds down a button. According to studies, less particulates and toxins are sent into the environment from the vapor than regular cigarette smoke.

StatisticBrain.com states that 35% of people who tried e-cigarettes quit smoking normal cigarettes within six months. The amount of sales for electronic cigarettes has dramatically increased from roughly $20 million in 2008 to over $1.7 billion dollars in sales.

The tobacco industry is aware of this huge market boom, and is attempting to buy out, with their billions, the major e-cigarette manufacturers. Philip Morris International, makers of Marlboro cigarettes, said they planned to enter the e-cigarette market in 2014 in response to the trends.

Mel Moscoso, a fine art major at the college, is an e-cigarette user who switched from traditional cigarettes.

Moscoso began “vaping” in order to quit using nicotine all together. Moscoso stated he has been lowering the amount of nicotine in the “e-fluids” he purchases, and plans to quit when he reaches zero nicotine. He also confirmed he has been one-hundred-percent cigarette-free for three months.

“After a month of straight ‘vaping’ and not smoking, I can breathe better in the morning when I wake up, my sense of smell improved, and I can honestly taste food better,” Moscoso said.

Moscoso also said that he believes e-cigarettes are a healthier choice than smoking regular cigarettes because cigarettes, “contain at least four thousand chemicals compared to e-cigarettes; which is way less”

Brandon Duval, another student at College of Sequoias, however, believes the opposite. Brandon stated that he has been smoking cigarettes for around 20 years and has tried to quit numerous times. Duval said that he has actually tried the new alternative, e-cigarettes, and they “don’t really satisfy the need of a regular cigarette.”

“You get more nicotine per puff, but the flavor’s not there…unfortunately, it’s just not the same thing.” Duval also said there is no such thing as a healthy alternative to cigarettes.

“You’re still putting toxins into your system…either way, it’s still bad for you.” Duval believes that e-cigarettes are a gateway into regular smoking. He said that tighter regulations should be put into effect so youth do not become addicted to the new ‘candy nicotine’. “It’s still considered smoking, so as far as I’m concerned, if they’re going to regulate regular cigarettes they might as well regulate the e-cigarettes.”

College of the Sequoias, meanwhile, currently lacks a specific e-cigarette policy. The college’s police chief, Bob Masterson, said that he noticed e-cigarette use picking up at the college a year ago. Masterson has completed a draft of a policy that would see e-cigarette users corraled into the same areas as traditional cigarette smokers.

Masterson said that the draft still has to go through the new channels of approval set forth by the COS 2.0 reorganization process.

“Where it goes from there is beyond me,” Masterson said. “As of now, the campus smoking policy involves tobacco products and nicotine products only. What we’re looking to change is to include the e-cigarettes as well.”

Masterson also said there has not been enough research to conclude that e-cigarettes are really a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs to do more research on the matter before one can jump to any conclusions.

“We are looking at coming in line with just like the UC and Cal State [campuses]…e-cigarettes are just the same as cigarettes.”

Americans give electronic cigarettes mixed reviews,while most think it's amazing

A woman displays a package of E-cigarette, an electronic substitute in the form of a rod, slightly longer than a normal cigarette, in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 25, 2008.

Should electronic cigarettes be a new option for smokers trying to kick the habit? Reactions from Americans are mixed.  More than half of people questioned in a poll think electronic cigarettes should be regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, but 47 percent believe the devices should be available to smokers who want to quit.  "In the hunt for a safer cigarette, electronic cigarettes, often referred to as ecigarettes, are becoming a popular option among those either trying to quit or who are looking to replace standard tobacco smoke with an alternative that manufacturers claim to be safer," Zogby  International, which conducted the poll, said in a statement.  About half of the 4,611 adults who took part in the poll had heard about ecigarettes, which are battery-powered, or rechargeable devices that vaporize a liquid nicotine solution. They do not produce smoke but an odorless water vapor.
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against using electronic cigarettes, saying there was no evidence to prove they were safe or helped smokers break the habit. The WHO said people who puff on ecigarettes inhale a fine mist of nicotine in the lungs.  Nearly a third of people questioned in the poll think that e-cigarettes, because they don't produce smoke, should be allowed in places where smoking is forbidden, but 46 percent disagreed. Men who were aware of the availability of  ecigarettes were more likely than women to say they should be an option available to smokers who want to quit.  Young people, aged 18-29, and singles were the groups most open to trying electronic cigarettes.  
Tobacco is the single largest cause of preventable death worldwide, according to the WHO.

Will you still suck regular cigarette?? Gaga will look down upon you.

In September 2008 the World Health Organization issued a statement warning smokers that there was no evidence to back up claims that e-cigarettes could help them quit. So what do we know about them？

E-cigarettes were invented by Hon Lik of electronics company Ruyan in Beijing, China. Ruyan sold its first electronic cigarette in May 2004, and e-cigarettes have been growing in popularity ever since. Accurate figures are hard to come by, but Ruyan — the world’s biggest manufacturer — claims to have sold over 300,000 in 2008. Smart Smokers, one company which sells Ruyan’s cigarettes in the UK, says sales are rising exponentially. In the US, hit TV show The Doctors featured the e-cigarette in the top 10 health trends of 2008. In a world where smoking is increasingly socially unacceptable, the e-cigarette looks like a success story in the making.

The device itself is pretty simple. It resembles a normal cigarette in shape and size but instead of containing cured tobacco it is mostly full of battery and an LED. The disposable filter holds a cartridge containing nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol, the liquid that is vaporized in nightclub smoke machines. When you take a drag, a pressure sensor switches on an electric heating coil that vaporizes the PG and releases the “smoke”. The strongest cartridge contains about the same amount of nicotine as a regularstrength cigarette, but lasts for about 300 puffs in comparison with a regular cigarette that lasts for about 15. The cartridges don’t “burn down” but deliver a puff whenever you choose to take one. Cartridges come in high, medium, low and zero-nicotine strength and cost around $1. 50 each.   However, on a per puff basis, the strongest cartridge only delivers around one-third the amount of nicotine delivered by a puff on a normal cigarette, says Murray Laugesen, a public health researcher who campaigned against tobacco smoking in New Zealand and is now studying the impact of smoking e-cigarettes.

E-Cigarettes Safer

Cigarette smoking kills. That we know. So, manufacturers made electronic cigarettes as a safer smoking choice - safer than tobacco.

E-cigarettes contain the drug nicotine like cigarettes. But they do not use tobacco. And you do not light them. They are powered by battery.

So, if e-cigarettes are so safe, why have poison control centers around the United States seen an increase in telephone calls about e-cigarette poisonings?  

The answer is children. 

Most of the calls are from people worried about children who have played with the devices. In the period of one month this year, the United States Centers for Disease Control say 215 people called the Center with e-cigarette concerns. More than half of these calls were for children ages five and younger. The devices apparently had made them sick. 

  Tim McAfee is director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. He says the problem is regulation. Meaning, the U.S. federal government does not control e-cigarettes even though they contain liquid nicotine. Mr. McAfee adds that liquid nicotine is a well-known danger.  

"Nicotine historically has been used as a pesticide in the United States. And that's where we have really had for many, many decades significant poisonings when people got exposed to nicotine that was in liquid solutions."  

Mr. McAfee explains that nicotine poisoning happens when the substance gets into the skin, gets into the eyes or is swallowed. Even a small amount, he says, can 

make a person sick.   Nicotine poisoning can cause stomach pain or a sense of unbalance. Headaches and seizures are also common signs of nicotine poisoning. And too much nicotine can kill.  

Tim McAfee says e-cigarettes do not create the level of risk to people that tobacco products do. He notes that almost 500,000 Americans die each year from cigarettes.

"So, cigarettes are the winner in that contest. And we don't really know what's going to happen with e-cigarettes." 

E-cigarettes do not contain hundreds of harmful chemicals that are found in real cigarettes. So, the U.S. Surgeon General has suggested that e-cigarettes may be a useful tool for adults trying end their tobacco use, or quit.  

But McAfee worries that teenagers may think electronic cigarettes are harmless. They could become addicted, or hooked, on the nicotine and then start smoking real cigarettes. In other words, he fears that for young people fake e-cigarettes could be a "gateway" to the real thing.   And that's the Health Report. I'm Anna Matteo.

A beauty sold cigarette here

I go the Kewadin Casino very often, a beauty sold cigarette here is quite charming. 

The restaurant at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie, MI, is no better than the one in St. Ignace. The only saving grace is that if you have points on your Northern Rewards card you can eat for free. That being said, I had rather pay for some decent food rather than get free food that is not worth it. 

The salad bar had only iceberg lettuce. There is nothing that tastes as nasty as iceberg. So getting a decent salad was totally out of the question. 

They had something that was suppose to be Indian Fry bread. While it did have a decent flavor it was so oversized that there was enough for several people to share It was about two to three inches thick. 

I had a chicken breast that was moist and tasty even though it was coated in something orange looking. Their food presentation leaves something to be desired.. 

The food appears to be commercially prepared and brought in. If that is not the case then they need to fire the entire kitchen staff and hire new people. I have had better food at truck stops.

We were told they got rid of their bakers and it shows in that the pies looked and tasted like they were commercially made, not home made. There was not a piece of cake to be had. We did not find any rolls, cornbread or biscuits. 

We were discussing their food with some other diners and they were also irritated that breakfast is not longer served during the day. Save your money and go to Denny's or Big Boys.