Letter: Reader says e-cigarettes spared her health

Why add a new less harmful product?

Many of us had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would die from some smoking-related disease or another because we knew we couldn’t quit.

I tried every other quit-smoking product on the market. If (MPP France) Gélinas has been a smoker for 34 years and is suffering the effects of it right now, than I apologise. If not, than I must say she has no idea what she is saying.

Just over a year ago, I was that person. Smoking over a pack a day, coughing, struggling to breathe and trying to choose between an e-cigarette or going on an inhaler for the summer. Thank God, I chose the former. I have been a non-smoker for more than a year.

I emphasize the obvious key word here. I am still using the e-cig. I do chose to continue to lower my nicotine level until I’m off, but meanwhile I am going on walks and/or bike rides every day without any breathing problems.

I can smell the flowers again, which was an impossibility last summer as my sense of smell was almost gone. I can taste my food again, which was another very hard thing to swallow (if you will excuse the pun).

Now, I cannot speak to the issue of banning indoor vaping, as I am not a researcher and certainly don’t agree with young people using the e-cig. But as an expert in the area of being a long-term smoker and now a vaper, I can say there is more than enough evidence that e-cigs are less harmful than smoking. Please don’t let propaganda stand in the way of you being healthy again.

Julie Saunders
Brantford, Ont.