My name is Tyler Bradford. I am a 37 year old married father of one, living in Portland, Oregon. Prior to using electronic cigarettes, I had been a smoker for approximately over two decades. After using electronic cigarettes (or to use what I feel is a better term for distinction purposes, vaping) for 5 months now, I feel confident that my smoking days are behind me, a feeling I have never had in any of my previous attempts to quit during the second decade of my smoking career. The details of how I became a smoker are not particularly unique in any way, but they are still worth going over to illustrate the difference between vaping and other smoking cessation methods. It was initially based on teenage rebellion and/or general curiosity. Throughout my young/middle teen years I was not a daily smoker, but would actively try to purchase cigarettes, and would smoke whenever they were available. By college, I was fully addicted, and would go to great lengths to buy/borrow/find cigarettes on my college budget. It was at this time I began to consider quitting, and even obtained a prescription for Wellbutrin my senior year, which was obviously ineffective in breaking my addiction. Upon graduating and moving to Portland I continued to smoke, as did most of my social circle. However, at this point I was approaching my first decade anniversary of smoking, and began to seriously want to stop smoking. My then-girfriend, now wife, was also a smoker, although her habit was much less ingrained than mine. In 2004-2005 (the exact date escapes me) I had my first real success with quitting, when I had a hypnotherapy session for smoking cessation. I was smoke free for over 6 months, but eventually began smoking again. I made other attempts to quit for a few years, including nicotine gum, herbal/alternative methods, and abstinence, but had little luck with any of these methods. However, when my wife became pregnant with my son, I quit cold turkey in December of 2008 at the end of her first trimester. It’s worth noting that my wife had quit a few years before this. Once this happened, I tended not to smoke around her, and when she became pregnant I always made sure that she wasn’t exposed to any second-hand smoke. I was also increasingly worried about my own health, as I was having many more episodes of smoking-related illness (upper respiratory infections, sore throat/strep, etc). This period lasted for 2 1/2 years. I knew that I could never smoke again without having to go through the ordeal of quitting all over, but yet I still ended up smoking again. At this point I hid my habit from my family as best I could (my son still does not know I was a smoker), but the inevitable happened, and my wife found out I had been smoking again, but not before I lied to her on a few occasions when she asked me directly if I had been smoking. At this point, I had now been smoking for 20 years with a few breaks. All of the periods where I was able to abstain from smoking were accompanied by a profound apprehension of falling of the Wagon. I eventually began to think of smoking in the terms that Alcoholics Anonymous uses to assist their members in abstaining from alcohol; One day at a a time, Today was a good day because I didn’t smoke, easy does it, etc. Even in the 2 1/2 years when I was somke-free I still would have intense cravings periodically, and I honestly believe that the only thing that kept me from smoking during that period was being constantly exposed to the inherently fragile nature of my, or any child at that age. But once he began to grow and that perilous delicate nature of an infant/toddler began to fade away, so did my resolve. Towards the end of my smoking career, my wife was extremely upset with me for smoking. In addition, she was even more upset at my dishonesty around smoking, to a point where I confidently say it caused harm to our relationship, and that harm is still present today, although lessened through both my efforts and efforts together as a couple. Finally, towards the end of 2013, she told me that I had to quit. I said I would come up with a plan, but I honestly had no plan, and was scared of trying to quit again, and then failing again. Then a friend of mine, whose experience with smoking was eerily similar to mine, was able to have a good degree of success quitting using an e-cigarette. He works in the construction industry, and is constantly exposed to smoking, both physically and in a pervasive work culture. I read a few things online about electronic cigarettes, and although I was fairly discouraged by the lack of hard scientific information out there, I was encouraged by the anecdotal evidence of other smokers in the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a cessation method. I decided to buy a disposable Blu brand e-cigarette, and give it a try. I’d like to make a clear distinction at this point; I feel that e-cigarette is an extremely harmful phrase. The dangers of smoking have been (rightfully) forced upon the american public for the past 2 1/2 decades. I even remember the Surgeon General’s report in 1988, stating that nicotine was as addictive as heroin and cocaine. To this day I could not name a single Surgeon General other than C. Everett Koop. And this era was the time that coincided with my entire smoking career. I have no excuse of ignorance. I did something horrible to my body for what might be, if I’m lucky, one quarter of my existence. So to link this new breakthrough to the habit of smoking with the phrase e-cigarette is a tragedy of enormous proportions. And although I really wish someone had hired a good PR firm before coming up with the term vaping, I think it is immeasurably better than the conflagration of the two drastically different habits. So from here on out, I will solely use the phrase vaping and not e-cigarette. So in December of 2013 I began vaping. That first Blu disposable unit was, honestly, pretty terrible. But I did get the feeling of reduced craving to smoke, and so I purchased a KangerTech EVOD atomizer from Division Vapor in Portland. The staff there all had an excellent sales demeanor, but also something else. There was a tone of helpfulness that reminded me of people involved in doing good works. The owner’s testimonial, which can be read here: http://www.divisionvapor.com/our-story.html resonated with me. Since that purchase I have come to appreciate vaping in it’s own right, but it is nothing compared to the relief from smoking addiction that it has afforded me. I no longer have the feeling of imminent failure that came with my other episodes of quitting. I also do not have the generalized feeling of failure when I was smoking. On the contrary, the more I vape, the stronger I feel about it’s benefits and the need to share my experience. I am honestly terrified that the public perception of vaping will create legislation that will kill people. There is no simpler way to put it. And it would be completely understandable. Every person alive today has been told for a significant portion, if not all of their life that smoking is a choice that can, and quite possibly will, kill you. The social taboo of that is not to be underestimated. Suicide, murder, human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc; these are the big ones in any human society. And vaping looks like smoking. It’s used as a substitute for smoking. You buy disposable vaping units in a convience store, and they are sitting right next to the Marlboros. But as someone who has the emotional experience of the last 20 years to compare to the last 5 months, I can tell you there is nothing further from the truth. These products are not the same. They are as different as a physician is from a serial killer. And people need to know this. The cultural bias towards smoking is justified, but the carry-over to vaping is not, based on all of the current scientific information. To me, It makes complete sense to continue to research vaping’s impact on human health, to continue to work towards standardizing the quality of products and improve the accountability of manufacturers and retailers towards responsible behavior, and to ensure that people who do not want to not be forcibly exposed to second-hand vapor, despite the fact that initial studies show there is no discernable impact. Because, you know, manners. In the spirit of full disclosure/honesty, as well as to give a fuller picture in this testimonial, I’d like to give a few more facts about myself: 1. I have had cigarettes in the last 5 months. This is almost always when I am around friends and acquaintances who still smoke, and with whom I’ve smoked with in the past. I actually feel bad about these moments, because I could be sending a much better message to these people, who are my friends, by only vaping. But old habits die hard, and despite all of the terrible things I know about smoking, there is still a part of my brain that craves them. But whenever that happens, there is no wagon that I fall off of. It would be more like stepping in a pothole; it breaks my stride, maybe twists my ankle a bit, but I’m still able to keep walking. And my destination is a place where those moments don’t happen, and I have no doubt I’ll get there. 2. After trying vaping with my EVOD for a week, I told my wife that vaping would be my plan for quitting. She did not, nor does she still, like this solution. I do not vape around my son. I generally do it alone, and I feel this is a minor failing as well. I do not know how to bring her around to my emerging way of thinking, and in some ways, I am not trying too hard, because I feel that I need to be completely confident in my smoking days being behind me before I try to ask for her understanding. Plus, she is a first-hand representative of the cultural bias I spoke of earlier. 3. I am a daily bike commuter. I ride 6 miles each way, so 12 miles a day, 60 miles a week, over 3,000 miles a year. Well, maybe that number is a bit high, I do take the bus occasionally. But in the last 5 months, my average commute time has shortened by 2 minutes, changing my average speed from 15mph to 17mph. I also can quote those mileage numbers with moccuh more confidence, as prior to vaping, some days I would take public transit home from work, because I just didn’t have the energy for the ride home (which is uphill, to boot). That does not happen anymore. I am probably in the best shape of my life, after high school. 4. I would not say I am a political junkie, but I am a very engaged voter. I am a registered democrat, but I only have done so because deomcrats tend to be more ideologically in line with my thinking, and I have to register to be able to vote in primaries in Oregon, a crucial step in the election process that I do not want to abdicate my right to be involved in. And I vote on issue that impact me. So if anyone in the political arena is reading this, realize that there will only me more of me as time goes on. Vaping isn’t going away. The choice is pretty clear; one thing kills you, one thing doesn’t. I’d reccommend getting on the right side of this early, because it’s going to be pretty hard explaining why you took those campaign contributions from Big Tobacco, when your votes could have been saving lives. Thanks for for reading this. -Tyler Bradford 5/10/14