Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Over 100 people came out to our Terrytown shop to check out the Crescent City Vape holiday party and cloud comp on Saturday, December 12.
Our Holiday Vape Party and cloud competition at Crescent City Vape’s shop on the Westbank this weekend was a huge hit. There were over a hundred people in attendance throughout the night, and over $2,000 in giveaways, including a ton of 120mil and 30mil bottles of e-liquid, plus box mods and tanks.
Amid the buzz of free beer and slow-cooked pulled pork with slaw, a slew of local shops and liquid companies were represented. The cloud comps, including an unregulated tube mod comp and a regulated box mod comp, were hosted by John Green, New Orleans vape advocate.
Alec, the creator of New Orleans e-juice company Fractal Fluids, was there vaping away on his Sub-zero mod with a Cloud Champ Plus. The giveaway included the Fractal Fluids flavor Apollonian Gasket, an artisanally top-notch honeydew melon with a variety of apples, drizzled with caramel.
Alec, creator of Fractal Fluids, shows off his vape rings.
Ly, hailing from The Vapor Lounge in Belle Chasse, wasn’t there just to hang out—he fogged it up, climbing the ladder to win the regulated mod competition and claiming the Decimus Box Mod/Spitfire Tank prize.
Left to right: John Green, who hosted the cloud comp; Ly, owner of The Vapor Lounge and winner of the regulated box comp; and Sean, owner and manager at Crescent City Vape.
Stephen won the unregulated tube mod cloud competition, and the competition was hot, with several rounds including clouds so close to each other in size that they had to redo the back-to-back vape.
From left to right: Sean from Crescent City Vape, Skeeter, Stephen, the winner of the unregulated tube mod cloud competition, and John Green.
Andrew, a former graduate student at UNO and vaper using a Kanger Subox mini setup, came out from Lake Terrace to join the party.
That cloud comp was real intense. It was so cloudy I couldn’t even see the other side of the room. I had maybe five foot visibility at one point, it was hilarious. Best part was I bought ten bucks in raffle tickets and walked out with $150 in juice. I lucked out all the way and won three 120mil bottles—&Drip, Blow and Black Hole, my favorite flavor from Paradox Liquids. Pure toasted almond donut goodness.
The air was rich with delicious smells and the vibe was a perfect blend of chill and enthusiastic, with a mix of dedicated and casual vapers.
Thanks so much to everyone who attended. We hope you had as much fun as we did, and we’ll be having another event again very soon at one of our three locations. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for the word on that!
Summary of VPX NOLA Advocacy Panel
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley on stage at VPX NOLA, Saturday, November 7, 2015.
The most important part of VPX NOLA this weekend had nothing to do with new e-liquid lines, cloud competitions, or after-parties. Instead, it was a panel of industry leaders who took part in a hugely informative session on the state of the vaping industry.
Members of the panel were:
Cynthia Cabrera, Executive Director of Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA)
Gregory Conley, President of American Vaping Association
Eric P. Gotting, Partner at Keller and Heckman LLP
Stefan Didak, NotBlowingSmoke.org
Joe Barnett, The Vaping Militia
Although turnout was light at the beginning, more and more people gathered around the stage to listen as the event progressed. For those who missed the panel discussion, here is a detailed summary.
I apologize in advance if anything below is incorrect or if I’ve misquoted any of the speakers. (I haven’t taken this many notes since college — and on my iPhone, no less.) Please email me with any feedback, corrections, or additions and I will update this post immediately.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “deeming regulations,” here’s a quick explanation: The FDA has proposed that certain products, including e-cigarettes and e-juice, be considered as tobacco products for the purpose of regulation. The new rules, which would be a catastrophic burden to the vaping industry, were sent to the White House for review in October, but they haven’t been finalized. Much of the VPX NOLA panel discussion centered around these deeming regulations.
Cynthia said FDA deeming regulations are being reviewed, and if they are enacted without changes, “no one will be spared.” No one in the expo hall, from the biggest sponsor to the smallest vendor “gets a pass.” She said that as an industry, we will all be out of business unless we work together and take action.
Cynthia, who talks to vape businesses all the time, said many of them do not understand how devastating the FDA’s deeming regulations will be if approved. She recalled a meeting she had with the owner of a large company who believed that the regulations would actually be good for business, that they’d spend some money getting their products tested and applied for, while their smaller competitors would go under, leaving more market share for them to capture. Not the case. She said even the largest companies in the vaping industry — as you’ll see below — will be eliminated from the market, not only because of the immense financial burden, but also because of regulatory and testing hurdles that businesses in this industry (except potentially for Big Tobacco) are unequipped to handle.
Attacks on the industry are coming from multiple fronts. In addition to the federal FDA deeming regulations, state and local governments have been proposing and enacting legislation (like vaping bans) that restrict the rights of vapers at the local level.
There also is the threat of Big Pharma, which funds public health organizations and nonprofit associations; and Big Tobacco, which lobbies against open-system products to gain market share for their closed-system products. This is an oversimplification, but you should get the idea: Lots of special interests with lots of money and many different stakeholders are fighting hard to destroy the vaping industry. “They are all threats,” Cynthia said.
Right now, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing the FDA’s deeming regulations and will decide whether to accept them or amend them. While this review process has no official timetable, they are being urged to act quickly and Cynthia believes it could be decided as soon as December 2015 or January 2016.
Here are ways you can act:
Meet with the OMB. As business owners, Cynthia stressed, you have the right to meet with the OMB and make them aware of how these regulations would affect your business. The OMB’s job is to review this largely from an economic perspective. This is an industry dominated by small businesses. You can present the OMB with real, concrete data showcasing how these regulations will cause you to remove products from the shelves, lay off employees, go out of business, and pay less in taxes. Do you have data about your customers’ flavor preferences to prove how important flavored e-liquid is to those trying to quit? Forget about emotional arguments and develop strong arguments supported by facts, numbers, and real data from your business.If you want to meet with the OMB, Cynthia has offered to help you set up and prepare for a meeting. You can contact SFATA here.
Support House of Representatives Bill HR 2058. The OMB can accept, reject or request changes to the FDA’s deeming regulations. If the OMB accepts these regulations without any changes, Cynthia says passing HR 2058 (The FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2015) will be “instrumental.”If you don’t know what HR 2058 is or have not yet taken action on it, please check out CASAA’s National Call to Action. From CASAA:
The FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2015 (HR 2058), introduced by Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, would save the U.S. vapor industry from being destroyed by improper regulations by the FDA. This bill would amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act to change the grandfather date for “deemed tobacco products.” This change would allow for all vapor products currently on the market to remain on the market without being subject to the burdensome (read: prohibitive) pre-market FDA approval application process.
Convert the unconverted. Talk to your non-vaping family, friends, neighbors, and local businesses, letting them know how vaping has changed your life and how the FDA (and perhaps your local government) is threatening your health by restricting these lifesaving products. As an industry, Cynthia said, we are “too insulated.” Make sure the people you know — the people in your community — are aware of your side of the story.
Have some vaping etiquette. This is obvious: Don’t give anyone a reason to dislike you as a vaper. Be courteous and respectful to those around you. We know secondhand vapor is harmless. That doesn’t mean it’s pleasant to those around you.
Greg started off by telling us how tired he is. Not from constant traveling, but by the general lack of awareness throughout the industry about these crucial issues. “All I see are companies that seem clueless.” Vape businesses need to know about these issues and start taking action.
He seemed disappointed by the audience turnout and began projecting his voice as loudly as possible so others throughout the expo could hear him. More and more people came to the stage.
His message was that if you think this industry is too big to be destroyed, you are mistaken. The vaping industry is a “drop in the bucket” of the U.S. economy. “If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry.”
Greg painted a vivid picture of what the industry would look like if the FDA deeming regulations are enacted as proposed, without any changes:
Every product on the market will be affected. Not just e-juice. Not just cigalikes. Even hardware and nicotine-free e-liquid (yes, you read that correctly). Every single e-cigarette product and accessory will be deemed a tobacco product and subject to the regulations proposed by the FDA.
So what would this actually mean for vapor products?
Applications would require $6-7 million in testing and other costs for each individual product. For e-liquid, that would mean every flavor and every nicotine level would be subject to its own application and testing, and you’d be responsible for the resulting costs — all without any guarantee that your product would even be approved.
During Q&A, Greg explained that much of this money would go to product testing, such as hiring toxicologists, psychologists, and other medical or research professionals. The burden would fall squarely on the business itself. There are testing centers and private labs that were preparing to enter this market to help vape businesses test their products more cost-effectively, but unfortunately, many of these labs are no longer an option because the FDA has dragged its feet for so long.
Greg also clarified that the $6-7 million per product estimate was likely based on cigalike products. It’s possible that e-liquid and other more advanced equipment could have substantially higher costs, potentially up to $20 million per product.
If you have not filed a pre-market application (PMTA) with the FDA by the time the regulations are enacted, you may have as little as 6 months from the date the regulations are enacted before your products are disallowed on the market. Six months is a worst-case scenario — it could be 1-2 years. But regardless, your products would be off the shelves eventually, and anyone selling unapproved products after this time period would be selling illegal products.
Want to know what a PMTA would actually entail? Dr. Michael Siegel outlines the (essentially impossible) testing and proof necessary for an application to be accepted in his blog post published Monday, November 9. Even if you can afford the ridiculous amount of money necessary, your chance of approval seems slim at best.
It wasn’t all bad news from Greg. In the Q&A, he admitted he has a less pessimistic view of the OMB and how it might act on the FDA’s deeming regulations.
However, if the OMB doesn’t request any changes, and HR 2058 is not passed, Greg expects litigation to play a large role in what happens next. Greg is a lawyer, and believes that the industry has many valid arguments on constitutional grounds. Nonetheless, he doesn’t want to leave it to the courts, so his effort is going to support HR 2058.
Additionally, Cynthia mentioned here that if it does come down to litigation, our best bet is to “overwhelm them with lawsuits of the http://sideeffectsofxarelto.org type”.
Legislation has been passed in Indiana that would have a devastating impact on the vapor market, not just in the state, but in the entire U.S. Eric is a Partner at Keller and Heckman LLP, a firm that has filed a lawsuit in Indiana on grounds that this legislation is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three e-liquid manufacturers — Cosmic Fog Vapors, Mt. Baker Vapor and Vapor Shark — along with an Indiana vape shop.
Eric invited Rob Crossley from Cosmic Fog Vapors to say a few words about the Right to be Smoke Free Coalition, formed by the four companies mentioned above. Rob spoke with passion about the coalition’s work in Indiana and urged vapers to get involved. While the organization will focus on other issues as well, challenging this legislation in Indiana is its top priority. The R2B website sums up the legislation:
The State of Indiana recently adopted a law that could wipe out the e-liquid industry in that state and, if not taken off the books permanently, could create a dangerous precedent for other states. Effective July 2016, the law prohibits e-liquid manufacturers, whether or not they are located in the state, from selling products to retailers and distributors in Indiana without a permit, which requires compliance with expensive and burdensome manufacturing and security protocols that may be impossible to meet. Indiana vape shops will also be required to obtain a tobacco sales certificate and are prohibited from selling e-liquids where the manufacturer has failed to obtain a permit. Of most concern, the statute is aimed solely at e-liquids used in ‘open-system’ products, while giving manufacturers of ‘closed-system’ cigalikes a free pass.
In the Q&A, Eric explained a few of the common-sense arguments they have to challenge this legislation:
The Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution basically says that the government can’t pass laws that don’t make sense or that are impossible to meet. For example, the legislation requires vape businesses to hire a private security firm that meets certain qualifications — but this is an impossible standard since, as far as they know, no such firms with these qualifications/certifications actually exist.
The legislation would only regulate open-system products while leaving closed-system products unregulated. This could be considered unconstitutional based on the Equal Protection Clause.
Additionally, it’s unconstitutional for Indiana to regulate businesses that are out of state. The legislation attempts to regulate all e-liquid manufacturers that want to sell products in Indiana, no matter where in the U.S. they are located.
Greg Conley believes these arguments are very strong and gives them his endorsement.
For those of you unaware of the work Stefan is doing, you need to check out Not Blowing Smoke. This organization is leading the fight in California, where the California Department of Public Health has invested millions of taxpayer dollars into an anti-vaping campaign called Still Blowing Smoke. Their campaign is scary propaganda, presenting misleading and downright false information about the alleged risks of vaping.
Not Blowing Smoke is working to expose these lies by California Department of Public Health and inform the public about the reality of vaping as a “consumer-created solution to the tobacco problem” and not a dirty trick by Big Tobacco to addict kids.
Check out NOTBlowingSmoke.org, watch their videos, and donate to the cause. What happens in California will impact the rest of the country.
Stefan has also created a new website, FDAregs.info, to help clarify information about the FDA deeming regulations and how they will affect consumers and businesses if enacted without changes.
Stefan’s talk was short and sweet. Not Blowing Smoke is organizing a national — but locally focused — campaign to expose lies and get the truth out there to the public. He couldn’t go into detail about the specifics of the campaign, but the gist is that they are creating multi-media content for ad campaigns and will allow anyone in any state to use their material for locally targeted advertising at no charge.
You can see how compelling and well-produced their videos and graphics are on their website. If you buy ad space — billboards, radio, TV, etc. — they will provide you with the content at no cost.
The vape community in general understands what’s going on because we use these products, and we can get this information out there and shared on social media. But we need more than social media reach. We need mainstream media reach, and Not Blowing Smoke is giving small businesses the tools we need to reach a much wider audience with this crucial message.
Please email Not Blowing Smoke for more information, or if you’d like to contribute to the local campaign.
First, he brought up the creators of LAECR, the Louisiana Association of Electronic Cigarette Retailers. There are dozens of vape businesses in Louisiana and we all need to work together on a united front to combat local vaping restrictions and regulations, such as the recent Louisiana state tax on e-liquid. It should no longer be about competing businesses, but about partnerships and mutually beneficial relationships to advance a common goal.
You can sign up and donate to LAECR on its website.
LAECR is collecting testimonials from former smokers in Louisiana whose lives have been influenced by e-cigarettes. Contact LAECR to share your story, so it can be used in their lobbying efforts and as they meet with our city and state representatives.
The second point Joe made is the importance of supporting the vape businesses that are playing a role in advocacy efforts. In Louisiana and across the country, there are plenty of vape shops and juice companies to do business with. “Don’t be a hypocrite.” If you know a business is engaging in poor practices don’t shop there! Support the businesses that are doing their part to advance this industry.
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If you have any corrections, feedback or additions, please email me and I will update this post immediately.
Thanks to ECC and VPX for an awesome weekend. Hope to see you back in NOLA soon!
The Age of Sub-Ohm Tanks and Why They Rock
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Sub-ohm tanks produce more flavor, more vapor, and can help smokers quit much more effectively than lower-quality tanks.
Sub-ohm tanks have taken the vape market by storm, making huge clouds and awesome flavor much more accessible for e-cigarette users of all levels, and no longer limited to those who want to rebuild their coils and drip constantly throughout the day.
You can see a detailed breakdown of what exactly sub-ohm vaping is here. In this post, we discuss the benefits of sub-ohm vaping, how to decide what sub-ohm tank is best for you.
Sub-Ohm Tanks Make High-Powered Vaping Easy
Just a few years ago, the only way to get a huge vapor hit was to use a low-resistance (sub-ohm) coil on a mechanical mod. Mechanical mods are simple metal tubes that hold a battery with no circuitry and no ability to digitally increase or decrease your power output (voltage or wattage). Thus, the most important factor for a powerful hit was the resistance level of your coil—lower resistance, bigger hit.
Sub-ohm tanks do all of that legwork for you. Companies like Aspire, Kanger and Sense pre-build high quality, low-resistance coils that fit into tanks featuring great airflow options and fast wicking. Pair any sub-ohm tank with a quality, easy-to-use regulated device like a Sigelei 75 watt or a Snow Wolf 200 watt, and you can have a tremendously airy, delicious, high-wattage vape, and all of the convenience that was once limited to less powerful tanks.
So, what does this mean for the vaping experience?
Sub-Ohm Tanks Provide More Vapor and Bigger Clouds
We love big clouds as much as the next vaper, as long as they’re courteously blown—it’s just good old fashioned fun, inhaling a delicious waterfall of vapor, breathing out like a friendly dragon, watching the vapor curl and flow outward into the room. It’s just more satisfying.
Sub-ohm tanks are designed to give you this kind of vapor. The coils and wicks in a sub-ohm tank are built to be capable of absorbing and vaporizing your e-liquid much quicker, with a faster heating element, breaking it into particles rapidly and releasing it into your inhale. This does mean they go through e-liquid a bit (or a lot) quicker, but this is a small price to pay for a more fun and enjoyable vaping experience.
Sub-Ohm Tanks Provide a More Flavorful Experience
Perhaps the paramount feature of any tank or rebuildable atomizer is the amount and quality of flavor it gives you. Believe it or not, there are elements and complexities of a flavor that are brought out by sub-ohm tanks which you simply won’t taste in a less powerful tank. By releasing more of the e-liquid flavoring particles more rapidly, sub-ohm tanks tap into those underlying complexities.
A strawberry cream flavor, like Singularity from Paradox Liquids, on a sub-ohm tank will bring out more of the strawberry, more of the cream. You can notice differences like whether the flavor is a ripe strawberry, a regular strawberry or a blend of both. You’ll pick up that side note of honeydew which you may otherwise have missed. More of all the individual flavor components emerge. In this sense, sub-ohm tanks make this artisanal side of vaping much more easily accessible and convenient.
Sub-Ohm Tanks Make Quitting Smoking Easier
With increased power comes an increased ability to cater your vape to exactly what you like. If you’re trying to quit smoking, some lower powered setups might not cut it for you. With a sub-ohm tank, you can close off the airflow and get a mouth-to-lung hit, just like a cigarette.
Sub-ohm tanks vaporize so much more quickly that you can get a get a strong, bold throat hit even with a lower nicotine level. At Crescent City Vape, we see many vapers get down to a 3 or even 0 milligram level of nicotine with sub-ohm tanks.
Versatility combined with power means sub-ohm tanks can provide any vape you want, and before you know it, you won’t even want to touch a cigarette anymore. And if your ultimate goal is to get off nicotine entirely, sub-ohm vaping offers a substantial hit even with little or no nicotine, making it much easier to wean yourself off nicotine entirely.
What does sub-ohm mean?
Sub-ohm refers to the resistance level of the wire in your coil, aka your atomizer. Something under 1 ohm is “sub-ohm,” and therefore allows heat to travel through it more quickly—i.e. it has less “resistance” to energy.
A useful little fact is that “sub-ohm vaping” is often a bit of a misnomer. People commonly refer to high-powered vaping when they use this phrase, but your coil doesn’t need to be under 1 ohm to get a huge flavor/vapor hit. The important factor to allow high-wattage vaping is the setup of your wick and your airflow. As long as you’re wicking fast enough and cooling the coil off with enough airflow, you can crank up the wattage.
Sub-Ohm Tank Breakdown
Sub-ohm tanks can cater to any style of vape. What makes them amazing is their flexibility. If you love the vape from a Nautilus, for example, the Kanger Subtank Nano, Mini or Plus can give you the same vape, only better, but its flexibility allows you to expand in the future to a much more powerful vape with more airflow, if you so choose.
Here’s a chart to break down the different sub-ohm tanks, and what styles of vape they can achieve based on the different modifiable features like coil resistance and airflow.
Incredible flavor and vapor, massive airflow allowing up to 140 watts (!)
Drippers (with a high-wattage build and airflow maxed): Turbo, Doge X2 or V2, Dark Horse, Troll, Little Boy, Kennedy, Mutation V4
That’s our rundown on sub-ohm tanks, the newest and most revolutionary aspect of vaping. If you have any questions at all about sub-ohm vaping or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’d love to know your opinion, too: Leave us a comment telling us your favorite sub-ohm tank and why you love it!
Public Health England: Vaping 95% Healthier Than Smoking
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Public Health England officially states that vaping is around 95% healthier than smoking tobacco cigarettes.
There’s wonderful vaping news from our friends across the pond: Public Health England (PHE) has officially declared that e-cigarettes are a vastly healthier alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes.
PHE is an umbrella executive agency of the U.K. Department of Health. For an official organization to make such a concrete declaration means public health organizations are starting to understand the health benefits of vaping as a smoking cessation method, as more and more people are choosing this as alternative to smoking and more companies as Vape Key Co, sell vaporizers for this, since people is trying to become more healthy by trying to quit tobacco.
After reviewing the many available peer-reviewed studies on e-cigarettes and culling survey statistics from thousands of smokers and nonsmokers, PHE concluded (emphasis ours):
There has been an overall shift towards the inaccurate perception of EC [electronic cigarettes] being as harmful as cigarettes over the last year in contrast to the current expert estimate that usingEC is around95% safer than smoking. [PHE Study, page 6]
Referring to the specific example of the widely spread news item about formaldehyde in e-cigarettes, PHE said (emphasis ours):
A high level of formaldehyde was found when e-liquid was over-heated to levels unpalatable to EC users, but there is no indication that EC users are exposed to dangerous levels of aldehydes. [PHE Study, page 12]
Vaping Can Help You Quit Smoking
PHE is officially supporting vaping as a method of smoking cessation. In a trial run in two regions of England, public health organizations are actually permitted to medically prescribe vaping as a cessation method. According to a Business Insider article on the news:
[A]lmost all of the 2.6 million adults in the U.K. now thought to be using e-cigarettes are current or former conventional smokers, most using them to help them quit tobacco or to prevent them going back to smoking. […] There was no suggestion that the products were a gateway into tobacco smoking, with less than 1% of adults or young people who had never smoked becoming regular cigarette users.
Implications for the Vape Community
With this news from PHE about the safety of vaping, it seems clear that vaping should be allowed to thrive as an alternative to smoking. Regulation is necessary and good for public health issues, but only if approached wisely.
Clinical Psychology Professor Peter Hajek of Queen Mary University in London said:
[S]mokers differ in their needs and I would advise them not to give up on e-cigarettes if they do not like the first one they try. It may take some experimentation with different products and e-liquids to find the right one.
Any completely new market will face a learning curve, but vaping can be easy and rewarding. Physicians were persuaded to prescribe opioids inappropriately by pharmaceutical companies that paid opinion leaders to convince physicians that opioids weren’t so addictive after all, and that physicians who withheld opioids from patients with arthritis or back pain were “opioiphobic” and not providing the best care to their suffering patients. Pharmaceutical companies also confused prescribers about addiction by inventing the concept of “pseudoaddiction,” which looked exactly like addiction but was easily treated by higher doses of opioids.
Good vaping companies — of which there are many — produce high quality and thoughtfully engineered products. According to the PHE report, organizations have an obligation “to protect public health policy from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.”
Let’s avoid destroying a health revolution before it takes a foothold; let’s keep vaping alive.
Our most important goals at Crescent City Vape are to bring you the best vaping experience for your needs and to spread accurate vaping education. The benchmark of good science is skepticism, coupled with acknowledgment and implementation of what’s been proven. This PHE statement is a step in the right direction.
Let’s embrace truthful, objective information about e-cigarettes, with the ultimate goal of helping as many people as possible ditch the toxic smoke for much healthier vapor.
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Electronic cigarette batteries come in all different shapes and sizes. No matter what kind of device you’re vaping with, follow these basic guidelines for better, safer and more efficient battery use.
Guidelines for Safe and Effective Battery Use
Battery safety is one of the most important issues in vaping. Overloading a battery beyond its power limits or misusing a battery or charger can lead to potentially dangerous situations, as well as cause damage to your device. But there’s no need to worry. We’ve outlined simple guidelines below to make sure you’re using your battery properly and to keep you vaping as safely as possible.
If you have any questions about battery safety, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Internal Batteries: Non-Replaceable Batteries Like eGo/Pen-Style Batteries and Other Regulated Devices
Pen-style batteries (also called eGo batteries) and regulated devices with internal batteries are protected, which means they’ll never allow you to empty the battery’s power out beyond a safe limit. In terms of battery safety, basic, slim eGo batteries and regulated mods are very similar. Here are safety tips you should follow to be sure you’re playing it safe:
Keep an eye on charging battery: Do not charge your battery overnight. It’s best to charge it when you are nearby to keep an eye on it. When the light turns green, or your device says the battery is fully charged, remove the battery from the charger.
Use the right charger: Always use the correct type of charger for a battery — ideally, stick with the charging cable and wall adapter that came with your device.
Buy from a reputable source: It’s best to buy eGo chargers from a reputable source (like a local vape shop!). Using a cheap gas station charger with a quality eGo battery is a no-no. Avoid this!
Watch your amp level: Most regulated devices with internal batteries charge at either 0.5 amps or 1 amp, but some can charge at up to 2 amps. Look in your user manual to find out the correct amp level for charging your mod.
External Batteries: Mods With Replaceable or Removable Batteries
Mods with removable batteries (also called loose or external batteries) can be either regulated or unregulated. Unregulated mods, also known as mechanical mods, have no circuitry or safety protections. They are simply metal tubes, or sometimes boxes, into which a battery is inserted. This means you should take extra safety precautions when using a mechanical mod. Here’s a list of tips and guidelines for mech mods and other mods with external batteries.
Keep it clean: Regularly clean all the threading and inner walls of your mech mod. It’s best to use an alcohol wipe or alcohol and a cotton swab. Dirty threading can interfere with the circuit and cause a “hot button” — i.e., a button that remains stuck even after you let go.
Battery wrap: Check your battery wrap to make sure there are no holes or nicks in the wrap. The wrap is the plastic sheath that’s wrapped tightly around the metal battery. Additionally, be absolutely sure you are putting your batteries in the correct direction. The positive end of a battery is the end with less metal showing underneath the plastic battery wrap. In a box mod that holds two batteries, the batteries could either be in parallel (pointing in the same direction) or in series (pointing in opposite directions). Make sure you know the correct orientation for you mod batteries.
Married batteries: For a two-battery mod, it’s safest to use “married batteries.” This means you should buy two batteries at the same time, and use them and charge them together. If you want backup batteries, buy two more and keep them together as well. If needed, label the batteries with a marker so you can identify them.
Amp limit: The amperage limit is the measure of how much power your battery can handle. Most loose batteries tell you their amp limit directly on the side of the battery. If you find an Ohm’s law calculator online, you can input your coil’s resistance and your battery’s voltage and determine the amperage you are outputting. If this amperage is higher than your battery can handle, and you prefer to vape with this much power, you should purchase a higher-amperage battery.
Coil resistance: Whether you buy prebuilt atomizers or build your own coils, you need to be extra sure the resistance of your coil is high enough to be safe, especially with an unregulated mechanical mod. Building below 0.2ohms is not recommended unless you thoroughly understand battery safety.
Look out for hot spots: When building your own coils, you also need to be extra sure that your coil is firing correctly and that it does not have any hot spots. A good coil should heat up starting at the center of the coil.
Avoid cheap chargers: With external battery chargers, avoid chargers that seem generic, come from unknown companies, or do not stop the battery from charging once it is fully charged. This is known as “overcharge protection,” so look on your charger’s product box for that phrase or something similar. To play it as safe as possible, two high-quality and reputable battery charger companies are Luc and Nitecore.
Tip for mechanical mods: A loose battery in a single-battery mechanical mod will output voltage directly, meaning that as you vape, the battery’s output power will decrease and you’ll get less vapor and flavor. Don’t continue to vape until the battery is completely dead; this is bad for the battery and can be unsafe. When you notice a significant decrease in power, switch to a freshly charged battery.
General Battery Issues
Auto-firing: If your tank or coil heats up without the button being pressed, the first thing to do is remove your tank/atomizer as quickly as possible.
Venting: In the worst-case scenario, a battery will vent. This means gases inside the battery will build up and begin to release. If this happens, move your device as quickly as possible into something plastic, or at least away from anything flammable, and wait until the battery is no longer venting.
Disposal: Batteries that are at the end of their life should not just be thrown away — bring your loose batteries or devices with built-in batteries to Crescent City Vape and we will recycle them for you.
These guidelines may seem complicated at first, but in fact they’re simple to follow. It comes down to this: Keep an eye on your batteries, don’t charge them overnight, and don’t push your battery’s limits. Stick by these guidelines and the only thing you’ll have to worry about is which flavor to vape next!
Let’s Get This Straight: E-Cigarettes Are Not Tobacco
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Nicotine can be found in cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and several other vegetables — not just tobacco. Nicotine is exactly the same regardless of whether it’s extracted from tobacco leaves or another source.
As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers regulations on e-cigarettes, a major question is how it will approach taxing and regulating e-liquid. At the moment, the FDA and many Americans view e-liquid as a tobacco product. But this viewpoint is misleading, and potentially very harmful to vaping, which has been an important tool in helping smokers quit.
Nicotine can be found in cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and several other vegetables. The main reason it is usually extracted from tobacco is because there is more nicotine present in tobacco leaves than in other sources. If it were more cost-effective, companies would extract nicotine from eggplant or tomatoes, or simply synthesize it. But the nicotine liquid used in an electronic cigarette is pure. Even if nicotine is derived from tobacco, it is identical to nicotine from other sources and, once extracted, no longer has anything to do with the tobacco leaf it came from.
How Is Nicotine Different Than Most Tobacco Products?
What makes nicotine itself different from what is usually considered a tobacco product? A lot. Pure nicotine has virtually none of the cancer-causing effects of tobacco products like chew or traditional cigarettes. Cigarette smoke contains no fewer than 68 harmful carcinogens, including the tar produced by combustion.
In terms of its effects on the human body, e-liquid bears little resemblance to what typically is known as a “tobacco product.”
E-Cigarettes and the FDA
So far, though, the FDA has been trying to regulate e-liquid the same way it does all tobacco products, which would mean requiring e-liquid companies to potentially pay millions of dollars in fees and making them undergo a rigid, lengthy application process for selling their products. This would force many e-liquid companies out of business, leaving only e-liquid made by the massively wealthy big-three tobacco companies.
Besides the fact that pure nicotine is not tobacco, classifying e-cigarette devices as tobacco products is problematic. Most electronic cigarettes these days are merely a vessel for e-liquid and don’t contain e-liquid when purchased. Some people vape e-liquid that contains no nicotine at all, only flavorings, vegetable glycerin, and propylene glycol. To call this a tobacco product and tax it like one is ludicrous.
U.S. Rep Andy Harris (R-Md.) said, “I think most people realize that [e-cigarettes] are less dangerous than cigarettes, and yet we’re subjecting them to a higher level of regulation.” On the other hand, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has said that barring the FDA from treating e-liquid as a tobacco product “is nothing short of a giveaway to the tobacco industry.”
But Rep. Lowey has it backwards. RJ Reynolds can easily afford the fees and the time and the resources, and welcome these regulations as a way to limit the competition severely. They’re producing sub-par e-liquid and sub-par e-cigarettes that won’t help nearly as many people quit smoking. It’s in Big Tobacco’s best interest to either keep people vaping on their cheap e-cigarettes with their e-liquid, or to send people back to smoking. It’s the smaller companies in the industry – those producing effective vaping devices and high-quality, clean and pure e-liquid – that would be forced to close.
This is why it’s important that our representatives in Congress recognize that e-cigarettes do not actually contain tobacco. Once nicotine is isolated, it is different than tobacco. If we accept that e-cigarettes are like any other tobacco product and quash the quality independent e-cig market, we may send millions of vapers back to smoking.
If you’d like to tell Congress that e-cigarettes should not be regulated like tobacco products, we encourage you to join over 30,000 vapers and supporters in signing this Change.org petition. Let your voice be heard!
Study: E-Cigarettes Could Save Government Billions in Health Care Costs
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
Electronic cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation aid that could save Medicaid billions of dollars a year.
A review of current literature has found that e-cigarettes have the potential to save billions of dollars in Medicaid expenditures related to cigarette smoking. Among all smoking adults in the United States, the total cost of direct medical care due to smoking totals almost $170 billion.
The review, written by J. Scott Moody, chief economist of State Budget Solutions, estimates that a smoking cessation program for Medicaid recipients — one that used e-cigarettes — could have saved Medicaid roughly $48 billion in 2012. Fifty-one percent of Medicaid recipients are smokers, compared with 21 percent of the general population.
Smoking has been linked to half of the deaths caused by the 12 most common cancers, and together with secondhand smoke, causes 1,300 deaths every day. There are numerous health complications associated with smoking, including cancer, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disorders, and many more.
The annual cost in lost productivity in a smoking population also is very high. Among smokers, lost productivity due to smoke breaks and sick days totaled around $185 billion in 2005.
Moody makes a case for avoiding over-regulation or taxation of e-cigarettes because the cost of smoking in terms of health care and lost productivity is much greater than potential revenue from a tax on e-cigarettes.
E-Cigarettes as a Smoking Cessation Aid
Research has found that e-cigarette users can successfully quit at high rates or greatly reduce the number of tobacco cigarettes they smoke per day. A study conducted on smokers provided them with e-cigarettes, information about how to use them, and instructions on where to buy e-liquid. Nineteen percent of e-cigarette users completely quit by the end of eight months, while almost half of smokers studied had cut their smoking in half while vaping.
Another study, published in the journal Addiction, found that smokers who quit traditional cigarettes using e-cigarettes were more successful than smokers using the nicotine patch or gum.
Whether smokers quit completely or reduce the number of cigarettes smoked with e-cigarettes, the benefits are clear: reducing or quitting cigarettes with e-cigs can reduce the health complications associated with smoking cigarettes.
E-Cigarettes Threatened By Regulation And Taxation
In 2012, states collected $28 billion in revenue from taxes on tobacco products — a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of smoking in terms of medical costs and lost productivity.
Unfortunately, the public health benefits and health care savings associated with e-cigarette use and smoking cessation would not reach their full potential if e-cigarettes were to be taxed and treated like tobacco products.
It seems clear that Medicaid’s precarious financial situation would be greatly relieved by a widespread movement to quit smoking.
For smokers who are unsuccessful using other smoking cessation methods, e-cigarettes represent a life-saving opportunity to kick the habit.
A tax increase on e-cigarettes could likely discourage some smokers from making the switch to e-cigarettes. Continuing as cigarette smokers is not only bad for public health, but is bad economic policy. The amount of revenue that would be brought in by e-cigarette taxes pales in comparison to the societal costs of continued smoking.
Understanding the full costs associated with smoking cigarettes is crucial for states considering the taxation and regulation of e-cigarettes as tobacco products.
Unfortunately, many states have already made the wrong decision.
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
There are many myths swirling around about e-cigarettes and their effects on vapers and bystanders. To clear the air about the real impact of electronic cigarettes, here are our responses to some of the most common misconceptions about e-cigarettes.
Myth: We don’t know what ingredients are in e-liquid.
Fact: E-liquid, also known as e-juice, is the liquid used in electronic cigarettes. E-liquid generally contains the following ingredients: water, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavoring, and usually nicotine, although e-juice is available without any nicotine whatsoever. You can learn more about these ingredients and their uses and health effects here.
While it may not be perfect, the bottom line is that e-cigarette vapor is exponentially safer than tobacco smoke. Smokers who switch from traditional tobacco cigarettes to non-combustible e-cigarettes, will improve their health significantly.
Myth: Vapor released into the environment from e-cigarettes is as harmful to bystanders as secondhand smoke.
Fact: While secondhand vapor does exist, the levels of carcinogens and nicotine exposure are far below those of secondhand smoke, and secondhand vapor does not contain carbon monoxide, a significant toxic substance found in secondhand smoke. According to this study, air quality after e-cigarette use is much less toxic than after tobacco cigarette use.
Myth: E-cigarettes encourage children and nonsmokers to try real cigarettes.
Fact: While e-cigarette use is now higher among high school students than in the past, this growth corresponds to overall growth of e-cigarette use across the entire population. There is currently no data that suggests trying e-cigarettes leads minors to smoking traditional cigarettes. In fact, teenage smoking rates of traditional cigarettes have dropped dramatically, from 11 percent in 2009 to 6.7 percent in 2014. A study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, suggests there is very little chance that a nonsmoker who tries an e-cigarette will develop a tobacco smoking habit.
E-cigarettes are intended for adult smokers only, and in almost all states, minors are not legally allowed to purchase these products. At Crescent City Vape, we actively ask for IDs and do not allow anyone under 18 to step foot in our shop. This is the same at every vape shop we know of.
Anecdotally, we can proudly say that everyone who works at Crescent City Vape has quit smoking tobacco cigarettes thanks to e-cigarettes, and hundreds of our customers share the same life-changing experience from these products. There is no doubt that electronic cigarettes help smokers quit and are saving lives by doing so.
Myth: E-cigarette vapor contains large amounts of poisonous formaldehyde.
Fact: This is a claim most recently proposed by authors of a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The problem with this claim is that the conditions used in the study when formaldehyde was detected are nothing like actual e-cigarette vaporizing conditions.
The study actually concluded that at typical wattage (i.e. normal vaping conditions), no formaldehyde was found in vapor.
It is more than obvious that the findings of very high levels of formaldehyde are a result of overheating. Lack of experience on e-cigarettes and no contact with vapers can result in such erroneous and unrealistic results, which can create confusion and misinformation both in the scientific community and among users and potential users of e-cigarettes.
Myth: Nicotine is dangerous, so e-cigarettes are bad because they deliver nicotine.
Fact: This myth is based on the fallacy that nicotine is the harmful substance in cigarette smoke and other tobacco products. In reality, it is the thousands of other chemicals and carcinogens in tobacco products that are so harmful to public health, rather than the nicotine. In fact, many FDA-approved smoking cessation products also contain nicotine, such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, and nicotine inhalers. Analysis conducted by Peter Hajek of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine suggests that perhaps health officials are reluctant to recommend e-cigarettes because they believe nicotine use should be eradicated. This conclusion is extremely harmful to smokers who might otherwise be inclined to reduce health risks by switching to e-cigarettes.
It is also important to note that not all e-liquid contains nicotine, and many vapers are able to wean themselves off nicotine entirely by gradually lowering the concentration of nicotine in their e-juice over time.
Myth: E-cigarettes are more expensive than tobacco cigarettes.
Fact: While costs of tobacco cigarettes vary significantly depending on location, e-liquid is not subjected to federal or state tobacco taxes that drive up the cost of conventional cigarettes. Additionally, while e-juice bottles and equipment vary in cost, e-cigarette use is generally less expensive than a pack-a-day cigarette habit. This calculator can help you determine just how much money you could save by switching to an e-cigarette and e-liquid.
Myth: Fruity or sweet flavors are not appealing to adult smokers, but rather are meant to attract kids.
Fact: While several lawmakers have urged the FDA to further regulate e-cigarettes, and ban marketing that they say draws children into using e-cigarettes, there is no statistical or scientific evidence to back their claims that e-cigarette marketing is designed to appeal to children. In fact, flavors sell for a reason: They appeal to adult vapers. Three-quarters of adults buying e-liquid prefer flavored e-liquid for their e-cigarettes.
At Crescent City Vape, we have more than 100 flavors of e-juice, and in our experience, the key to quitting your smoking habit is to find a flavor you love more than that pack of cigarettes. Even vapers who start by using tobacco-flavored e-liquid often transition to different flavors as they begin to lose their taste for tobacco altogether.
E-cigarettes are intended only for adult smokers, and no one under the age of 18 is allowed in our vape shop, or any other vape shop we know of.
Myth: Electronic cigarettes are more addictive than tobacco cigarettes.
Fact: This Penn State study shows that electronic cigarettes are actually less addictive than tobacco cigarettes. The study posits that e-cigarettes deliver less concentrated levels of nicotine than tobacco cigarettes, which could explain the lessened risk of addiction.
Additionally, almost all e-juice is available with 0mg of nicotine, and many vapers are able to wean themselves off nicotine entirely by reducing the concentration of nicotine in their e-liquid over time, eventually to zero.
If you have any questions about e-cigarettes or their health implications, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help!
Mardi Gras Parade Day Specials
Crescent City Vape Blog
Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.
With two shops located on the parade routes, we’ll be partying and vaping all Mardi Gras long at Crescent City Vape. As a thank you to our amazing customers, and to celebrate our very first Mardi Gras, Crescent City Vape will be offering some truly crazy Carnival specials.
In fact, we will be offering a crazy new deal on e-juice or hardware every single parade day — that’s 9 days and 29 parade’s worth of the best vaping deals in NOLA.
All specials will be available at both the Magazine and St. Charles shops all day long, while supplies last.
Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for announcements about each day’s specials. Here’s the remaining schedule!
Wednesday, Feb. 11 — KangerTech Subtank for only $44.99 (reg. $64.99)!
The Kanger Subtank is the most versatile sub-ohm tank out on the market today featuring both 1.2 ohm and 0.5 ohm replaceable coils, as well as a rebuildable section that can be switched out to make the subtank fully rebuildable. The subtank replaceable coils come built with kanthal wire and organic cotton wicks delivering one of the most flavorful vapes you can get in a tank.
Thursday, Feb. 12 — Cosmic Charlie’s Chalk Dust. Two 15ml bottles for $17.99 (reg. $12.99 per bottle)!
This delicious juice is mixed at a 70/30 PG/VG with popular flavors like Banana Brulee (caramelized banana on buttermilk pancakes), Dream Cream (a rich vanilla with hints of fudge and notes of cinnamon) and Slam Berry (farm-fresh strawberries and homemade ice cream).
Friday, Feb. 13 — Cloupor Mini 30 Watt Box Mod + an Aspire Atlantis Sub-Ohm Tank with MXJO 35 AMP battery just $99.99 (reg. 154.99)!
This sub-ohm starter kit is an extremely portable and powerful set up. The cloupor mini and the atlantis sub-ohom tank are two of the most popular e-cig products on the market, perfect for anyone on the go with no time to drip, or for those vapers looking to get a little more power out of their vape without fully committing to building themselves.
Saturday, Feb. 14 — We Three Vapors. Two 15ml bottles for $18.99 (reg. 14.00 per bottle)!
One of the hidden gems of the e-juice world, We Three Vapors is blended at a 70/30 VG/PG ratio, with popular flavors like Nanner Nanner (smooth vanilla custard), Banana Suicide (banana, lots and lots of banana) and Queen Cake (what better occasion than this for a king cake vape?).
Sunday, Feb. 15 — MXJO 18650 Batteries. Two for $17.99 with the purchase of any juice!
The Yellow Battery! These 18650 batteries are rated at 35 AMP with a 2500 MAH capacity, perfect for sub-ohm vaping in a regulated or an unregulated mod.
Monday, Feb. 16 — Cloud 9 E-Juice. Two 30ml bottles for $31.99 (reg. 20.99 per bottle)!
Cloud 9 is mixed at either 80/20 VG/PG or Max VG. This juice captures the perfect amount of vapor production, while keeping the intense flavor of high PG juices intact. If you haven’t tried Cloud 9, today is the day you should, with delicious flavors like Blueberry Smurf, Strawberry Shake, and Dark Matter (peanut butter and vanilla).
(Closed Fat Tuesday, Feb. 17.)
These specials are available at both of our locations (in-store only):
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated, and we hope to see you at the shops.
Cheers to a smoke-free Mardi Gras…cloudy in the tastiest way possible! No matter the family dynamic, each member of the family will be affected by addiction. Overwhelming emotions feed off of silence. One on one therapy gives the individual a safe place to express stronger emotions which need a release. Working through the different trials will help the individual learn how to support the addict in a healthy way. Mending a broken relationship is not easy for either party involved, click here to learn more.
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With two shops located on the parade routes, we’ll be partying and vaping all Mardi Gras long at Crescent City Vape. As a thank you to our amazing customers, and to celebrate our very first Mardi Gras, Crescent City Vape will be offering some truly crazy Carnival specials.