I have been smoking cigarettes for about 40 years, 30-40 per day. My health condition was awful, including borderline symptoms of COPD and permenent infections. I have tried quitting several times with either no substitute or different NRTs but always failed. The longest smoke-free period was about 4 months. In January 2012, i.e. about 16 months ago, I started using a disposable electronic cigarette with relatively high nicotine content (36 mg/ml) and immediately cut down the number of daily cigarettes from 40 to 4-6. After about three weeks I had no cigarettes left and since then I have not touched a single cigarette anymore. Surprisingly, this turned out to be fairly easy without considerable craving for tobacco cigarettes, except a short period of time (several hard days) about 4 weeks after having fully stopped smoking. Meanwhile I cannot even imagine to smoke again, even when hanging around and drinking alcohol together with my friends who are all heavy smokers. The disposable mini e-cig turned out to be insufficient for long-term use, and so I purchased a variety of other devices. Now I own about 20 different types of batteries and atomizers, but mostly use clearomizers and rebuildables with variable voltage batteries. I prepare my own liquids with a nicotine concentration of 18 mg/ml and vape 3-4 ml of these liquids per day. My health improved considerably since I have stopped smoking. In particular, I don’t cough anymore and haven’t had a single infection since then. I assume e-cigs have eventually saved my life and don’t understand why the WHO, FDA and other health organizations discourage smokers from switching to the electronic cigarettes instead of advertising these devices for harm reduction. It is a pitty that the interests of the pharmaceutical industry apparently count more than our lives.