HYDERABAD: Cigarettes cause the early deaths of around 5 million people each year.

 

These people are not killed by the nicotine in the cigarette, but by the other constituents of tobacco smoke --- carbon monoxide and the other 4000 chemicals present in tobacco.

 

What the nicotine does is keep the smoker addicted.

 

At least, that is the opinion of many medical health specialists. Which is how NRT, or Nicotine Replacement Therapy came to be.

 

According to Wikipedia, “Nicotine replacement therapy helps to damp down the urges to smoke that most smokers have in the early days and weeks after quitting, rather than remove them totally. It gives the smoker the chance to break smoking cues in their daily lives, and might provide a more comfortable exit from the smoking habit.” Sound good, doesn’t it?

 

And it has helped many people quit the bad habit. Take Ankur Samantray, who works for an IT firm, for instance.

 

“I had been smoking for about five years --- 20-25 cigarettes a day --- when I decided to quit. I think I tried quitting six or seven times, but each time, I would end up back to my old habits in two weeks. My mom was worried, and so she looked up NRT s and asked a family member to send across nicotine gum and nicotine patches from USA. I would alternate between the two, and ended up quitting after about five months. I’ve had the occasional cigarette here and there, but it’s no longer an issue,” he says, glowing about the benefit of NRT s.

 

But the use of NRT products is not prevalent in the country.

 

Using willpower alone has so far been the most popular method in India to try and quit smoking. Dr Sajeela Maini, a tobacco cessation specialist, explains, “This is really the need of the hour in India. Today smokers must have a 360 degree environment of support.”

 

“NRT addresses the issue of physical addiction to nicotine and allows the smoker to focus his or her will-power on combating the habits and triggers that perpetuate the addiction to cigarettes.”

 

And while NRT s have been found to be quite successful in helping some people quite, others are not quite as happy.

 

According to Grace Chandy, who works for an NGO, NRT s are just another form of nicotine addiction.

 

“Honestly speaking, I have tried the gum, but it never really did much for me. It’s just another way to get hooked to nicotine. When I stopped the using the gum, the craving came back, and I ended up smoking again. When I finally did quit smoking, it was sheer will-power that helped me do so. All there nicotine replacement therapies are just illusions.”

 

But the nicotine gum and the patch aren’t the only NRT options that one has. One particularly controversial NRT , the electronic cigarette, has found many takers.

 

The e-Cigarette is a non-flammable device that consists of a tiny rod that is longer than a real cigarette, and comes with a replaceable cartridge that contains liquified nicotine, propylene glycol, tobacco flavor, and a membrane to hold the in gredients.

 

The e-Cigarette also has a small rechargeable battery that allows nicotine to be converted into vapor with each inhalation.

 

When a smoker takes a puff, a sensor present in the e-Cigarette detects the air flow and a microprocessor injects tiny small drops of liquified nicotine, which gets vaporised.

 

The vapor has no smell and dissipates fast.

 

To make the mist look like normal cigarette smoke, ethylene glycol is used.

 

So not only does this device satisfy the chemical craving for the drug, but using the it allows the smoker to imitate the physical action of smoking a cigarette or pipe.

 

Nirbhay Sen, a data analyst, absolutely loves his electronic cigarette.

 

“I stopped coughing, I don’t smell like an ashtray and I feel addicted to the e-cigarette, but less so than I was to cigarettes.

 

I’ve been using it for about four months, and I will probably eventually quit smoking the e-cigarette too, but not any time too soon,” he says.

 

And while he might be appreciative of this particular form of NRT , he is not so find of others.

 

“I don’t remember which brand I tried, but the nicotine gum was awful. It doesn’t taste like gum, it breaks up in your mouth and it burns in your stomach. To top it off I started hiccuping constantly. And after all that I still wanted to smoke, so I just gave up on the gum,” says Nirbhay.

 

But the e-cigarette technology is fairly new and the health effects of long term use are currently unknown.

 

Several studies regarding the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine vapor are currently in progress.