From the time I was a child, I have always had a fascination with inhaling things. Perhaps it was due to my father being a smoker, I don’t know. I recall being around eight or nine years old when I first ‘smoked’. In this case, we had a grapevine on the side of our house that must have died due to neglect…at any rate, we figured out we could break off pieces that were dried out and light them up and – presto, smoke them! (I can’t imagine that inhaling that stuff was beneficial to my health, ha ha. At least we only did it two or three times.) I include that in order to demonstrate the psychological/psychomotor connection between the act of smoking and the addiction to smoking. A big part of the reason why electronic cigarettes are so successful in helping smokers cut down significantly or quit tobacco use altogether lies therein. I began smoking conventional cigarettes sometime around the age of 14, and continued to smoke 1/2 to 3/4 pack a day for about 6 years. I then quit for about 8, then began smoking again. Upon resuming smoking, I noticed quite quickly how it affected my endurance for playing soccer, biking, etc. in an obviously negative way. Also my previously strong immune system became more susceptible to illness as a result. I quit for a bit, smoked 4-5 a day for a while, quit, then resumed again. Seems I could never really give up the habit entirely. At the beginning of summer 2013, while going through a separation and divorce, I began smoking at a higher rate – often closer to 3/4 pack. One day a woman who lives in my apartment building saw me outside smoking, and commented something to the effect of how many times do you come down here to smoke every day – implying that it seemed like a lot. However, she then went on to tell me that she used to smoke heavily but had used ecigarettes for a while instead, then quit using them entirely. She now is quite fit and active, from what I can tell. Thus began my interest in ecigarettes and ‘vaping’. I did a ton of research online, weighed up the pros and cons and decided that it would be worth a shot. I tried a cheap disposable kind first, just to see if the sensation at all was like conventional smoking, and was quite pleased. So I went on to order some supplies and begin the transition from smoker to vaper. At this point, I am only about a week into this journey, and already I feel little to no desire to light up anymore. I have been having one or two cigarettes a day, and each day they taste worse and become less satisfying in comparison to my vaping. I daresay the vaping experience is much more pleasant (both for me and those around me), and much more interesting in terms of the plethora of devices, flavors, etc. available. Already my cardiovascular endurance is noticeably better, as well as my olfactory senses. I am certain I will be giving up ‘analog’ cigarettes entirely very, very soon. While I realize nicotine itself is not the safest substance in the world (nor is caffeine or alcohol), and the long-term effects of inhaling propylene glycol are unknown, to me the reward far outweighs the risk. I am certain that food and drug administrations of various countries permit the use of food additives and preservatives, fertilizers, etc. that have been tested and found to cause no short-term effects, without knowing the long-term effects. (I think also of mobile phones and how the RF signals they produce in such close proximity to the brain could possibly have detrimental effects over the LONG term; no one really knows for certain.) I believe that ecigarettes and the related juices, hardware, etc. should be regulated in the same way as consumer electronics and food products, in order to ensure as much quality and safety as possible. I also believe people as individuals have the right and freedom to make responsible choices as to activities and interests they enjoy – even those that come with some degree of risk, for example skydiving – and should not be prevented from doing so. And so I thank the FDA and any other analogous agencies worldwide who are willing to listen in for taking the time to engage the ecigarette community and hear our stories.