Release of the Safe Cig Micro Electronic Cigarette
It has been quite a while since we last updated the site, hope you all had a great summer! As part of our reinvigoration of the site, we wanted to update you all on the newest product from Safe Cig – the Micro! Here’s what we received from the folks over at Safe Cig:
Smaller. Smarter.
The Safe Cig Micro sets a new bar for super-mini e-cigs.
At midnight last night our coding monkeys went crazy putting up a whole new website to celebrate the launch of the long anticipated Safe Cig Micro. About the same size as an actual cigarette, this Micro was designed by our engineers in California to be the longest lasting, richest vaping you’ve ever seen from something so small.
So the new product is up on the website, hope to hear from some actual users to get some feedback. Click here to check it out!
Quitting Smoking While Pregnant Still Improves Baby Health
Smoking has quite a few negative consequences for the smoker and her unborn child. It can lead to cancer, heart disease and a stroke to name just a few of the risks from smoking. If someone is pregnant and smoking, it is very harmful for her baby. When a pregnant woman smokes she exposes her baby to harmful chemicals like nicotine and tar. These chemicals can make it difficult for the baby to get enough oxygen which is important for their growth. Smoking can also do damage to the baby’s little lungs. Obviously then, it is best to quit as soon as possible, and natural quit smoking products are probably the safest way to go.
But does quitting in any way eliminate the damage that has been done? Babies who were born to women who smoked throughout their pregnancy are far more likely to have a low birth weight, be born prematurely and have birth defects like cleft lip. Babies born prematurely and with a low birth weight face even more dangers. They could be born with a lifelong disability such as cerebral palsy and in some cases may even die.
Second hand smoke is harmful also. This can also cause a baby to be born at a low birth weight, die from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), and puts them at greater risk for asthma, ear infections and may also have slow lung growth. These are just some of the possibilities that come with a baby being subjected to second hand smoke. So while the focus is normally on the pregnant woman and if she smokes during her pregnancy, those in her household should not smoke either.
Women are definitely encouraged to not smoke while they are pregnant and some women may think it’s too late to quit if she just found out she is pregnant and has been smoking all along. However research has revealed that those women who quit smoking around the time of getting pregnant or just as soon as their pregnancy was confirmed delivered babies with very similar birth weights as those women who never smoked. Babies were less likely to be born prematurely as well.
Some researchers even found that quitting smoking before the fifteenth week of pregnancy still have a chance to reduce the risk of delivering a baby with a low birth weight than if they chose to keep smoking. This is in no way saying go ahead and smoke but stop after a few months and everything will be ok. Smoking that long into pregnancy has far more risks of harmful health than for perhaps the very few that were fortunate and made it that far into their pregnancies while smoking.
It is in the best interest of the mother and her unborn child to quit smoking before becoming pregnant or just as soon as she discovers she is pregnant. If the pregnant woman wants to quit smoking it is better if she quits cold turkey versus using some of the stop-smoking alternatives such as nicotine gum or patch. It’s not too late to quit if you are a pregnant woman reading this. Your baby will thank you for it later.
Dangers of Chantix Quit Smoking Drug Pile On
Trying to quit smoking can be a long and harrowing journey full of ups and downs. It is one of the few addictions whose cause actually holds physiological merit. Most long term smokers can tell you in vivid detail just how cruel their master nicotine can be. Release from such oppression causes people to try all sorts remedies; from quitting cold turkey to nicotine patches and in some cases thousands of dollars worth of psychological therapy. People are willing to try anything to kick the habit no matter what the cost of freedom may be. However, it has recently been found that people taking Chantix could end up paying the ultimate price.
The findings of fourteen recent studies were recently published on July fourth by the Canadian Medical Association Journal and revealed startling news about Chantix. For those unfamiliar with the drug, Chantix is one of the million drugs currently on the market that claim to help smokers kick the habit forever with ease. The studies discussed in the article involved close to ten thousand smokers who where all tested and shown to have had no heart conditions prior to taking Chantix. Half of those involved in the studies were given placebos and half were given Chantix and both groups were followed for up to a year in certain cases. Unfortunately, none were given natural quit smoking products in this study.
Fifty-two people that were taking Chantix developed serious cardiovascular problems compared to twenty-seven people who developed similar complications while taking the placebo. Further follow up research of those who developed such complications has shown that Chantix is more than likely the culprit. In summary, Chantix could very well cost smokers the ultimate price while they are on their journey to salvation.
Of course, the company that manufactures Chantix, Pfizer, profusely refutes these findings and has claimed that the research is misinterpreted to paint Chantix in a bad light. Yet this isn’t the first major issue linked to Chantix. In 2009 the FDA, Food and Drug Administration, forced Pfizer to put a black box warning label on Chantix that warned potential users of potential psychiatric risks such as depression and possible thoughts of suicide. Additionally, Chantix has been shown to be overall ineffective in its main purpose. Dr. Curt Furberg, an author of one of the studies, said that at best Chantix had a ten percent success rate.
Anyone trying to quit smoking should realize that the process is hardly risk free. However you can certainly limit the severity of the risk you take on the road to freedom from nicotine. If you or anyone you know is taking Chantix be sure he or she knows their life may be on the line and urge them to find another way before using Chantix as a last resort. Natural products like Smoke Deter may yet still be the best way to quit.
New Green Smoke products – Better and Cheaper Green Smoke Cartridges and Starter Kits
Green Smoke just recently announced their new line of products; raising the value of their offerings while at the same time lowering prices. Their latest move is just the most recent improvement, continuing their competitive status as the best electronic cigarette.
The new cartomizers are branded FlavorMax™, a longer lasting cartridge that can provide up to 360 puffs, 30 traditional cigarettes or about 1.5 packs of cigarettes. The price will range from $13.59 to $16.99 per pack of 5, depending on the number of packages bought (up to 8), This brings the traditional cigarette pack price equivalent to $1.81!
Additionally, the starter kits will now start at just under $100.
Companies like Green Smoke, that consistently work to put out a better product, are favored heavily in the quit-smoking-comparison.com ratings system.
Saving Money by Quitting Smoking
It seems that there is not a day that goes by where I don’t ruminate about just how much money I could save if I could only quit smoking. Having tried almost everything; patches, nicotine gum, lozenges, inhalers, hypnotism, laser therapy, and the list goes on, but I still find myself looking for a solution. The recent introduction of electronic cigarettes is an option that I have not tried yet, but based on my previous track record trying to quit, I find myself a little less than hopeful that this avenue will work.
There is always the financial incentive to quit though. Every time I think that my monthly habit, with today’s costs and my level of consumption, represents what could easily be a car payment, I just wonder why I haven’t been able to get this monkey off my back. Living in Michigan, a state with relatively high cigarette taxes, but by no means the highest in the country, I find myself spending roughly $6.00 for a pack of cigarettes and generally smoke about a pack a day. Simple math makes this roughly a $180 a month habit. Throw in the fact that my wife also smokes about the same amount, and we are into this addiction for about $360 a month in total. Now there is a financial incentive to quit, so why don’t we? What is it about saving $4,320 a year that can’t motivate us?
Aside from a recent program introduced in New Jersey to supply an 8 week supply of nicotine replacement therapy patches or gum (while supplies last) along with 5 free counseling sessions with a smoking cessation coach; from the standpoint of a smoker that pays a significant amount of taxes per pack of cigarettes, the level of government support to provide assistance for smoking cessation is nothing short of wanting. A recent visit to http://www.smokefree.gov to see what government resources are available to help smokers quit came up with a variety of free pamphlets to review with the most recent pamphlet dated 2008, or 3 years ago. A multi-billion dollar a year industry and the best many of our government branches can come up with is pamphlets. Well I guess I could always try to smoke one!
Beyond the direct out-of-pocket expenses for smoking, there are a wide variety of other expenses related to smoking that one should address as well:
- Health Costs due to smoking go through the roof as you get older
- Life insurance rates are higher for smokers
- Laundry and dry cleaning costs escalate as clothing gets permeated with cigarette smoke
- Property damage and the replacement costs of ruined clothing due to cigarette burns
- Increased occurrences of illnesses
- Loss of physical stamina
The tides have been turning against smoking for decades now, but efforts to help people quit one of the most addictive substances known to man have boiled down to creating another whole industry for smoking cessation products that cost more money and in reality have abysmal success rates. Those that still smoke and pay hefty taxes to do so would probably appreciate it if some of this tax revenue was poured into research for better ways to help people quit rather than by producing another pamphlet.
Switching to an electronic cigarette or quitting entirely with a Nicotine free product like Smoke Deter could have significant benefits down the road for people.