Digital smoking could curb unhealthy habit?

It looks as though smokers these days have less and less places to light up legally as smoking bans sweep across a whole bunch of developed nations. As for developing nations, you’ll still be able to flout those bans with little effect, and can even flick the cigarette stub onto the floor with little care. Several tech savvy companies have taken up the task to help smokers keep up with their habit in public while finding a loophole in the wall - that is, delivering a nicotine fix minus the negative effects that will affect both the smoker and non-smoker. While nicotine patches certainly help wean the smoker off lighting up frequently, the don’t exactly perform too well. What about the idea of “digital” smoking? This idea allows smokers to light up in public without flouting those anti-smoking laws that are already in place.

The Crown7 is one of such products, featuring an Art Deco styled tube that comes with a cartridge and rechargeable battery. This cartridge will hold some water, propylene glycol, nicotine, and a tobacco flavor of your choice. A single cartridge is the equivalent of approximately two packs of cigarettes, while each costs approximately $2 to manufacture, making it by far the more affordable option than one-off use cigarettes. You do need to fork out a rather hefty initial investment though, as the reusable tube will set you back anywhere from $64.95 to $149.95 - but as with other more expensive items in life, you have to think about the long run before making a decision.

Crown7 will boast three styles that cater to individual smokers - cigarette, cigar, and pipe. The main benefit lies in the fact that it contains nicotine but does not pollute the environment nor introduce carcinogens to the lungs of second hand smokers around you. Instead, it emits just a harmless vapor that does not leave any odor in a room or on clothing. Would smokers really settle for a solution such as this, or would they prefer the tough, no-nonsense Marlboro Man image holding a real ciggie?

Source: Gizmag

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3 Comments on “Digital smoking could curb unhealthy habit?”

Gallery of Gadget Posts » Coolest Gadgets Says:

September 26th, 2007 at 10:34 am

[...] Digital smoking could curb unhealthy habit? [...]

Andi Says:

September 26th, 2007 at 1:13 pm

I’d definitely try one of those out… I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t possible to peacefully fight against this major discrimination against smokers… As I’m a rather non-violent person, I’d give these a shot. Also, the financial factor isn’t neglectable, either.

oh by the way, I’m using the mobile version now ans it’S great! Faster loading times and less expensive,too

Maryetta Says:

September 27th, 2007 at 3:13 am

Smoking bans, created to benefit Big Pharma, always present benefits for the small fish also.

… turns out to be a Chinese SMOKING CESSATION DEVICE!

Electronic losers?

Mmhh… what kind of defiance is the use of a device that the law permits?… We mean, where is the defiance? Are we talking, once again, about the illusion of being fighters, or being real fighters by disobeying the law? And if smoking is a right, how come it can be taken away or given back?
Let’s face the real issue, if you please — as it seems to us that we are missing the target as usual. The issue is the right to smoke - better yet, the conquest of the legal right to smoke that was the custom but was never specifically protected by law. The electronic cigarette is nothing but a nicotine inhaler. Is the issue how to go around the ban with some device, or is it how to beat the ban in the long run with disobedience, creation of political problems and with the continuous exposure of the institutional fraud on active and passive smoke? If junk like those devices is adopted, it will only prove that we are nicotine “addicts” - not “freedom fighters” or fighters for health institutions that have some integrity.
The first thing to do therefore is to establish what we want: freedom or “nicotine fixes”? Do we want to prove that we are “addicts”, or fight for the right to smoke the real McCoy?
If the choice is the former, and if these nicotine devices become common use, not only will the bans stay forever but, once established in the culture, a way will be found to ban even those devices — guaranteed! Let us never forget that the WHO program is to eliminate any form of nicotine intake — whether smoked or otherwise — unless it is of pharmaceutical origin. The message to deliver, therefore, is that we will not submit to politicized scientific fraud by health “authorities”, nor will we accept to undergo cultural engineering — with or without nicotine delivery devices.
Furthermore, the “electronic cigarette” advertised as a way to “beat the ban” is, in reality, a Chinese product that “helps you stub out the habit”, as described in this Reuters press release of May 9, 2007. So, at the end of it all, the device of “defiance” turns out to be a smoking cessation trick! If you want to quit smoking, all you need to do is put down the pack – and conform to the impositions. No need to fall for marketing scams – but there sure seems to be a desperate need to become a little bit less naive.
In short, the problem is to be eliminated at the root. To use a metaphor, when you get the beating you can either develop a thicker skin (and that will induce the abuser to get a bat with spikes), or keep a thin skin but take the bat away from the beater — and use it on him.
We unconditionally vote for the second option — for the first one will only guarantee more beating.