The ill effects of tobacco cigarettes and effects of smoking have encouraged many smokers to make an effort to quit smoking. However, giving up smoking can be a daunting task when you are heavily dependant on the smoking ritual as well as nicotine. Since quitting cigarettes cold turkey can become overwhelming and painful, smoking cessation treatments that include smokeless tobacco and nicotine patches were introduced.
Although smokeless tobacco is less dangerous, it is still a major hazard to health. Granted that there is no second hand smoke that endangers those around you, but the cancer risk is definitely not worth taking. Electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco and are considered to be much safer than smokeless tobacco. While tobacco cigarettes contain almost sixty carcinogenic substances, smokeless tobacco products contain about thirty. Smokeless tobacco has also been directly linked to oral cancer.
Electronic cigarettes do not carry risk of cancer and merely supply the user with nicotine to suppress their cravings. The success rate of kicking the smoking addiction permanently has been much higher in e-cigarettes than any other form of cessation or nicotine replacement therapy. Just like smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes do not cause the respiratory diseases associated with tobacco smoke.
Another advantage of using an electronic cigarette instead of smokeless tobacco is that they do not attract heavy expenses. Importation of tobacco products including smokeless tobacco are subjected to heavy taxing. Recently, several countries have also increased taxes on tobacco products drastically to discourage the use and sale of dangerous and addictive substances. One popular example is Australia, which increased taxes on smokeless tobacco from AUD 2.30 per kilo to AUD 300.39 per kilo in 2006.
Despite being safer than tobacco cigarettes, smokeless tobacco does not give the user the satisfaction of the ritual itself. Electronic cigarettes look and work just like tobacco cigarettes, delivering the same enjoyable nicotine hit.
