Re: The secret to giving up the toe rags...
@GregC - that, and e-cigs, as far as anyone has reliably ascertained, are about as dangerous to your health as a couple of strong coffees a day, or constantly chewing gum; IE fairly benign, and not something to worry about in the grand scheme of things; air pollution in towns is a far greater threat to health as far as we are aware.
The addictiveness of nicotine by itself is also somewhat questionable, at least by the standards we think of (IE more addictive than heroin as is the often touted line) - double blind tests with patches showed no withdrawal symptoms from the tested subjects. Patches are a slow release system so that's not a perfect comparison by any means, and inhalation delivers the nicotine to the brain far faster; but again, more and more people who vape seem to find that lowering their nicotine level, even in extreme jumps using the same device, is pretty easy, and doesn't leave them scratching at the walls.
I myself accidentally went from 18mg to 6mg when I 'served myself' from the local shop (I wasn't theiving, owner was on the phone and they know me well, I didn't read the label) and I didn't realise for two days. Mostly it has a minor affect on the flavour - nicotine gives it some extra bite, something that can be replicated with some flavourings anyway.
However, nicotine, inhaled, and mixed with all the other things in cigarettes (MAOIs, acetaldehydes - known to be addictive in rats, ammonia to make the nicotine freebase and even more rapidly taken into the system...) is certainly very addictive.
Nicotine, in e-cigs, appears to be more a part of the habit forming cycle, giving a small chemical reward to the hand to mouth action and the visual feedback of vapour/smoke. If you are a smoker, try having a fag with your eyes closed; a shiny penny says it's not as enjoyable.
This also explains why some of the more heavy hitting devices (like my RX200 and Griffin) are enjoyable to use; playing with the cloud is part of the fun of both smoking and vaping, and the heavier devices (generally needed for thicker liquids) tend to be very good at making thick, warm vapour. I won't deny I enjoy that, but in the same way that I like pulling away from tollbooths quickly and redlining the engine of my car through the gears; just because I enjoy it doesn't mean I do it everywhere ;-)
The whole profile of addiction with regards to cigarette, and cigarette-esque devices really needs an overhaul given that nicotine use via inhalation now has a far less harmful delivery method; when it was just cigarettes, and they were the only (very dangerous) choice, it was fine to hyperbolise the risks as there was literally no harm to doing it, as the only way to get that 'hit' was from lit tobacco.
But with e-cigs, there's a fairly - but not entirely, as nothing is - safe way of getting the satisfaction of inhaled nicotine, and to demonise it 'because nicotine' is probably a mistake, given how many people this could take away from the 50% of deaths in smokers caused directly by lit tobacco smoke inhalation, not to mention the three fires a day/half of all preventable deaths in fire caused directly by lit tobacco - and that's just in London.
I'd love to see a large, double blind study of addictiveness in e-cigs. I reckon it'd be eyeopening.
Steven R