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.