As someone who has encouraged people to switch to Eclipse, I have seen firsthand how it is used and there is indeed hardly any smoke that comes out of these cigarettes.
They are not ordinary cigarettes of course, they perform a process that is called vaporizing. Vaporizing in itself carries much less risk than traditional smoking.
The Eclipse cigarettes must be used the right way to obtain the benefits that naturally come with vaporizing. It must be lit much like a cigar at first, which does produce some smoke initially. Then once the carbon is lit, there is no side-stream smoke. It can more or less be dragged on like a normal cigarette, (it even looks like smoking a regular cigarette). Depending on how hard the user drags on it determines how hot the carbon gets and whether or not some smoke will be briefly visible.
If you've been in a room with a smoker, you know that just ONE old-fashioned cigarette can pretty much kill the air quality in a room. In a non-smoker's house (like mine), the smell will linger for at least a day.
But when they are smoking the Eclipse brand vaporizer cigarettes, there is absolutely no lingering smells or odors and absolutely no side-stream or second hand smoke.
I don't know why anyone would think THAT is a bad thing for people who have to be around tobacco users.
Tar, and carbon monoxide is created only when the tobacco is burned. Only if the user of an Eclipse cigarette takes deep drags off of it there will be briefly noticeable smoke, since deep drags make the carbon element get hot enough to actually make the tobacco burn slightly and may produce a small amount of smoke. It dissipates immediately.
That is the only catch with ECLIPSE cigarettes compared to old fashioned ones: It is not a true vaporizer, it DOES and CAN burn SOME of the tobacco, by RJ Reynolds' estimation, up to 3% if the user is taking normal drags. It is more of a HYBRID vaporizer-cigarette.
A true vaporizer would not produce any smoke, therefore, would not create any carbon monoxide or tar, would not produce any visible cloud, would not smell, and would not have any taste.
However when RJ Reynolds came up with a true smokeless vaporizer cigarette (the "Premier" in 1992), people complained because they could not smell taste or see anything coming out of it, therefore, it did not resemble a traditional cigarette at all.
But with the new Eclipse design, it is purposefully supposed to burn *some* of the tobacco so that it can have some flavor/taste.
I have noticed that people who have been 'smoking' Eclipse cigarettes exclusively for longer than a year have a REAL HARD TIME smoking an old-fashioned/traditional cigarette. They are not prepared for the amount of smoke that the old cigarettes like Camel or Marlboro produce and will often develop a cough or experience discomfort after having just one old fashioned cigarette.
The only time one has to be worried when switching to Eclipse from old fashioned cigarettes is if one already has some type of smoking-related disease. This is explained in the Eclipse brochure. It is not good to switch to Eclipse if one already has developed a smoking-related disease. The best time to switch is BEFORE that ever happens.
I'm sure there have been independant studies trying to say that Eclipse is a bad thing, but those who are doing those studies are already against tobacco to begin with, so their results are just as debatable without a third party who is unbiased. It may seem unfortunate, but, the tobacco companies have exclusive rights to do their own testing and release their own health claims. That's the law. The FDA is forbidden from interfering, and so is everyone else. So tobacco is a protected product in America. But come on. There WAS A TIME that tobacco was considered medicinal, and this was a long time ago.
There is no fooling anyone that tobacco's essential ingredient isn't a tried and true poison. Tobacco extracts have few barely recognizable medical uses, and the main purpose of tobacco extracts is to act as a main ingredient in poisons used to kill rodents and ants. Even though the very nature of Eclipse suggests it makes tobacco use many times "safer" in terms of reducing smoking-related irritants, the user is still inhaling the active ingredient nicotine, which in itself could be classified as a drug.
Though the Eclipse user might not be dealing with clouds of smoke, they are still getting nicotine. Perhaps much more than in a traditional cigarette because the nicotine doesn't get burned off into smoke and tar.
So now that the smoke and tar can be almost eliminated, how safe can ingesting nicotine be ?
I'm only suggesting switching to Eclipse to those who are addicted to cigarettes in the manner of which they need to go through the "action" of lighting a cigarette, holding it, taking drags, etc. Eclipse would be a great choice for anyone like that. I don't believe it is any more dangerous than a regular cigarette, and I KNOW I like Eclipse better because of the lack of billowing clouds of smoke.
Nicotine gum and nicotine-laced water is available for those people who want pure nicotine without having to deal with cigarettes, or inhaling. Nicotine gum and water are also another option for eliminating smoke. Big name pharmacies stock it near their smoking accessories and pipes. It's all there and available, the choices are up to the individual! If you're into using tobacco more than a couple times a week, you should educate yourself on every aspect of it. If you know it's hurting you, either switch to something safer or stop it.
There are also other types of smoking blends available if you look around, that do not use tobacco but herbs. They may contain mint leaves, damiana leaves, or so on. Again, they might have effects similar to tobacco, such as in giving a small buzz, and you don't get any addictive nicotine in tobacco-free smoking blends, but, the bottom line is smoking is always going to produce smoke, and inhaling smoke is what has been recognized as dangerous by the U.S. Surgeon General.
