A Non Fiction Critical Analysis on "Smoke Signals"

           In “Smoke Signals” from Upfront Magazine, written by, Alessandra Potenza, she discusses the new and improved, electronic cigarettes or also known as e-cigs.

A man called Hon Lik created e-cigs in China. Lik came up with this idea due to his heavy smoking habits and in honor of his father that passed away from lung cancer. E-cigs are battery powered and they vaporize liquid, instead of using real smoke. Some people like electronic cigarettes and they think they are helping them, but some think that they will not help and still not as different as regular cigarettes.

          There are some bad components when it comes to electronic cigarettes. A study has been showed by a couple college students that there are some chemicals in the cigarette that can cause cancer. E-cigs will be used more often because you can smoke them indoors, where regular cigarettes cannot be smoked. This is bad because this is not stopping smoking, its just starting another addiction that people will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. E-cigs also contain nicotine, which is really bad for your health. They also have flavors, which can open up your pores and the nicotine can get in your face and cause more diseases.

          There are also some good components to e-cigs. They are way better than smoking a cigarette because they do not have tobacco. Tobacco has been shown to cause cancer over long terms. Another thing e-cigs do not have is tar. Tar is one of the main reasons why people get lung cancer. Tar is a chemical in cigarettes that cause black stuff on your lungs and it starts to back up. E-cigs will help smokers quit. Many say one reason it is hard to quit smoking is the constant ability to have something in your mouth at all times. This will help because it is the same rush of nicotine, but without tar and tobacco. A study has shown that smoking e-cigs are making people quit smoking faster and all together. To conclude, it will help the environment even more because they are not one time use like regular cigarettes are. You can charge them and can use them more than once.

          In conclusion, there are some pros and cons to smoking e cigs. They can be cancer causing but also have an ability to drive smokers to quit and move onto this new and improved cigarette, that isn’t so dangerous to our bodies.