Vaporiser or e-cigs, it's still a cigarette!

When National Youth Icon Datuk Nurul Hidayah Ahmad Zahid promoted the hashtag #vapeon on her Instagram recently, I squirmed with dismay.

I can't believe that a prominent and educated figure of the youth community is vaping away clouds of smoke and the proudly announced and promoted it on her popular Instagram account sayanurulzahid for other youngsters to see and emulate.

To my understanding, electronic-cigarettes or e-cigarettes or vaporisers were introduced to us some years ago as an aid for cigarette smokers to kick the habit.

So, does this mean that Nurul Hidayah was once a cigarette smoker and is now on the verge of quitting?

Or, is she one of those who picked up vaping just because she thinks it's cool? Did she at one point believed that cigarette smoking is cool too?

Whatever the answer is, vaping is an unhealthy lifestyle and should not be promoted, especially not by a public figure like her.

And especially so, for a non-smoker to pick up or 'invest' in a quit smoking aid like a vaporiser, is plain and downright silly. They totally miss the point and it truly defeats the purpose and function of the product.

What's more difficult to fathom is, why is it that there seems to be a 'sense of pride' when vaping?

I too, was a cigarette smoker once. I had been smoking for about a decade before I decided to call it quits when I found out I was pregnant in 2009. I went cold turkey, but with help from some nicotine patches.

A nicotine patch is a quit-smoking aid as well, but did I feel cool wearing it? Certainly not! In fact, I was quite embarrassed to be seen with it on my arm. And at that time, I didn't see people going around slapping the patch on their skin with pride like they do now with puffing on the vape.

Sorry, but I just don’t get which part of the e-ciggy comes close to being 'cool'.

What's more uncool and most annoying is that, many cigarette smokers I know who turned to vape, aren't showing any signs of kicking the habit at all. I've seen a lot of vapers who go around pinching other people's ciggies just because they miss the feeling of having the cancer stick in their hand.

This rising subculture of vapers, obsessed with what they perceive as a genius invention and technology of customisable e-cigarettes, more often than not spend a substantial amount of money to 'pimp' or adorn their apparatus with the latest upgrades, ending up spending more money than actually smoking real cigarettes.

But the amount of people who are vaping in Malaysia is so huge that our half-a-billion ringgit vape industry is the second largest in the world after the United States, and the biggest in Asia, according to report from the recent Vaporizer Convention Kuala Lumpur 2015.

To me, this means, Malaysians are the second biggest most gullible population after the Americans to fall for this bizarre e-cigarette craze and marketing stunt.

Logically, can a combo of non-organic, synthetic flavoured substance that functions on electronic mechanism be safer and healthier than the (not so) good old tobacco?

Does it really help cigarette smokers to quit the filthyg habit, or does it only create a diversion to another form of puffing?

Since electronic cigarettes were introduced, there have been countless debates on the product; if the pros outweighs the cons. In my opinion, the fact remains uncertain because the e-cigarette is so new that research findings are insufficient and cannot be taken into account quite so credibly.

Yes, it is one's personal choice to either smoke whatever he or she wants, but to me, an e-cigarette is still a cigarette.

Cool much? I don't think so.