Would people still hate cigarettes as much as they do if they were smokeless and tarless? Would smokers be allowed back indoors? The makers of the NicStic, a battery powered smokeless ciggy, are banking on it.
The NicStic is a cigarette-size plastic tube with a rechargeable heating coil that vaporizes tobacco instead of burning it.
Pop a filter on the end of the tube, and in seconds it is warmed up enough for a nicotine fix without the smoke. Because it has no smoke, it also has none of the tar, arsenic, cadmium and formaldehyde of regular cigarettes; it also passes muster with local anti-smoking laws here.
“I actually don’t mind doing a bit of vogueing with this,” said Victor Chambers, a former model and steady smoker, who tried the device at a reporter’s request inside a crowded local bar. “Shivering in the rain for a smoke is just so last season.”
The NicStic kit, which retails online for 80 euros (about $100), comes with a small plastic heating case, three voltage adapters and a carton of filters in boxes that resemble standard cigarette packs. The heating case is powered by a 3.7-volt lithium battery like those found in cell phones or digital cameras; once charged, it can fire up about 20 fume-free smokes.
Billed as “enjoyment without discrimination,” it may seem to give smokers another crutch to maintain their nic addiction in the face of a vehement social backlash. But the device is winning support from some health officials as a way to help smokers who want to kick the habit.
“It could be a useful bridge to help quit,” said anti-smoking campaigner Dr. Giacomo Mangiaracina, of the Italian Society for the Study of the Effects of Tobacco.
On the downside, NicStic is kind of an olfactory three-card monte: There’s no smoke or its lingering funk but there is a distinct tobacco smell, unpleasant even to smokers. It’s easy to see that nicotine also doubles as an effective insecticide — the smell of musky, dry tobacco sent every living thing in one apartment scampering for cover the day the kit arrived in the mail.
Tobacco companies in the United States have been trying to hit on a safer or smokeless cigarette since the late 1980s.
While NicStic bypasses the anti-smoking laws in both bars and restaurants, there is one problem: Sans smoke, there’s no escape from looking like a sucking poseur.
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