The electronic cigarette has achieved impressive growth as an alternative to the traditional tobacco cigarette. Millions of Web pages on the Internet have been devoted to this revolutionary product.

An Electronic Cigarette is shaped like an ordinary cigarette, and it is designed to give the user pretty much the same experience as smoking a tobacco product, right down to the lighted cigarette tip and the blowing smoke. However, it usually contains just nicotine dissolved in a flavored solution, so it is mercifully free from the carcinogenic substances that are commonly found in tobacco products.

The first few versions of the electronic cigarette may have been much too large when compared to ordinary cigarettes, but the disparity in size has been overcome by the later versions. Indeed, a mini-sized electronic cigarette is just 100 millimeters long, which is equivalent to the length of a typical cigarette made from tobacco. The pen-style models of e-cigarettes bear a certain resemblance to ordinary cigarettes attached to those long black holders, like what Audrey Hepburn used in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The cartridge used in an electronic cigarette is what gives it the taste of tobacco, though it does not contain the other harmful chemicals that are present in ordinary cigarettes. Thus, a smoker’s cravings for nicotine and the flavor of tobacco are satisfied in a more healthy way.

The cartridges for an electronic cigarette are available with different concentrations of nicotine. They range from extra-high to low doses, plus the zero nicotine option. This feature lets the user gradually reduce the amount of nicotine intake for each electronic cigarette until he or she may even be free of the dependence on nicotine.

If you think an electronic cigarette can simulate only the taste of particular types of cigarettes (like menthol) or brands of cigarettes, you would be wrong. Food flavors for electronic cigarette cartridges are also available: coffee, Coke, chocolate, caramel, praline, vanilla, apple, cherry, grape, lemon, mango, peach, etc. The tremendous variety is great because the user does not have to get bored with the same flavor all the time.

Each electronic cigarette cartridge can last for about the same time that fifteen to twenty cigarettes do. This means quite a difference in cost between an electronic cigarette and a traditional cigarette. This offsets the initial investment on an electronic cigarette kit. Another component that needs to be periodically replaced is the atomizer, each of which lasts for about a month. The atomizer, by the way, is part of the electronic cigarette that causes the flavored liquid in the cartridge to vaporize. This is why the popular term for using an e-cigarette is “vaping.” The process produces water vapor rather than cigarette smoke.

Another significant argument in favor of becoming an electronic cigarette user is that you can use them in a lot more places than ordinary smokers do, and all because you would not actually be smoking. Unlike the dreaded secondhand smoke, the vapor from e-cigarettes is tolerable in workplaces, food or beverage establishments, planes, and other public places where smoking would not be allowed.

For all the reasons that have been discussed, the electronic cigarette is an attractive way to curb your use of ordinary cigarettes. It should seriously be considered an alternative to smoking tobacco.