Vulcan Vape pioneers future smoke

People like to smoke.

No matter that the anti-smoking forces are trumpeting louder than ever, and the world in general is increasingly intolerant of smoke in its first- and second-hand incarnations.

It's hard to imagine a world where smoking is history, but electronic cigarettes -- like those sold by Vulcan Vape of Birmingham -- are gaining popularity. Currier & Ives print 'Smoker's Promendade" (1876).

No matter how nauseatingly clear it continues to become that cigarettes, in addition to making you look slightly cooler, also make you and the people around you die in a number of drawn-out and painful ways.

People still like to smoke, whether it be for the cool, the calm or the concentration or as an appetite suppressant.

For years, people have turned to alternative nicotine delivery methods, such as patches and gums, for a nicotine fix that doesn’t make you smell like a damp, rotten thing and isn’t packed with thousands of deadly chemicals.

But patches and gums don’t have the same social rituals attached to them that smoking does — the breaks at work, the post-dinner or post-coital smoke — so smokers tend to flock back to the death-sticks.

Now, finally, there may be a third alternative for smokers looking to step back from the cancer ledge: electronic cigarettes (e-cigs).

A little bit about e-cigs: The multitudinous market varieties range from from cheap disposables to gleaming refillables that cost more than $100. All work the same: A battery connects to a heating element, which vaporizes a liquid made of water, nicotine, a flavoring and vegetable or propylene glycol, which the FDA has “generally recognized as safe” for use in food and is used in cosmetics and medicines, though it should be noted that its use in e-cigs is not on the list of recognized uses. That vapor is then inhaled (“vaping” in e-cig lingo) and, upon exhalation, dissipates odorlessly and immediately.

An incredibly large number of flavors are available (banana, bacon), and come in a range of nicotine dosage from the equivalent of a regular cigarette down to no nicotine at all.

In the last year, two Birmingham entrepreneurs, Jake Waitzman and Wes McDonald, and their brand new start-up, Vulcan Vape, have been riding the wave of e-cig popularity.

You may have heard of McDonald and Waitzman before. They are half of the Birmingham-based band Vulture Whale and first stumbled onto the e-cig phenomenon while touring with the band.

“They sell the disposable ones in the Pilot truck-stops,” Waitzman says. “We’d all seen them, but hadn’t taken them seriously. Then Wes started doing some heavy research on the Internet and found some of the ones we sell now, which aren’t disposable. They’re refillable, and they allow you to sample the myriad flavors that are out there, the endless spectrum that are constantly being created. Once he brought in something he got off the Internet, and I tasted it, then we all started vaping.”

It wasn’t long before both Waitzman and McDonald had quit their own long-time smoking habits for full-time vaping. Because of federal regulations, they are not allowed to talk about any health or smoke-cessation benefits their e-cig products have, but they can both attest to the fact that they noticed dramatic improvements in their own health after their transition to vaping.

“Now I never wake up with a tight chest or a smoke-over,” McDonald says. “You never wake up and go, ‘Oh, I vaped too much last night.’ My wife loves it. I don’t come home stinking. I can walk right in the door and give her a big kiss.”

The two embraced vaping fully and began to notice that while they were out, playing gigs or hanging with friends at a bar, their e-cigs were always the center of attention.

“We found ourselves in the position of explaining it, educating,” Waitzman says. “We’d have a table full of friends that we came with, and we’re not talking to them, we’re talking to eight strangers all night about [vaping].”

They decided to sell e-cigs, with a business model focusing on a simple product line that would be easy for a novice to understand. The model seems to be working for them, because business is booming. Currently, they’ve made sales in 26 states and eight countries.

“The e-cig business is on this upward trajectory,” Waitzman says. “Everybody who’s doing good business and not being jerks and who has good products, everybody is month over month, 20 to 30 percent growth, and we’re in right there with that.”

Though the majority of their business now comes from the internet, McDonald and Waitzman are committed to spreading their brand locally as well, and have been holding “Vape-Ins” at popular local destinations such as Rojo, Workplay and the new Avondale Brewing Company.

“We set up what we call a vape bar,” explains Waitzman. “Everyone gets their own sanitary mouthpiece that they can keep so that can put it on any of the different units and try everything safely. We answer questions as best we can and people who already know all about it like to show up. It’s become a chance for other vapers to say, ‘I know, it’s great!’”

Community response has been positive, and though a definite date for the next Vape-In has not been set, the two plan to hold one roughly every six weeks.

It’s not all smooth sailing, however. The burgeoning e-cig industry has been faced with a number of setbacks, from opposition among anti-smoking advocates who dismiss the cessation benefits and cite the vast range of flavors as attractive to children, to the recent Internet meme involving a man who had a number of teeth and part of his tongue blown off by an e-cig. In that case, further research revealed that the man had been tampering with the battery of his e-cig device, causing it to explode. To date, no unmodified e-cig device being used in the intended manner has had a similar problem.

Any smoker (or ex-smoker) knows the joy of taking a drag, but e-cig advocates believe they have a better, safer way. Photo by Carlos Huerta.

Here in Birmingham, a public safety committee recently hosted a hearing on a proposed smoking ban that would prohibit smoking in a number of public spaces and includes e-cigs, despite the fact that e-cigs have not been proven to cause any of the harmful effects such a smoking ban is intended to prevent.

And there’s the rub. The e-cig is industry is too new. The studies haven’t been done to prove whether the product harmful or not. Objective observation seems to point towards not, and even Bill Godshall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania and advocate of smoking bans is quoted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article as saying that e-cigs were “at least 99 percent less hazardous than cigarettes” and that “there’s no smoke, so nonsmokers don’t get harmed.” But, until there is incontrovertible scientific proof, both sides can make all of the pronouncements that they like.

Still, whether you can vape in your favorite watering hole or not, e-cigs are probably here to stay. People will use them to help quit smoking, whether the FDA approves them that way or not, and if all else fails, I’m betting that people will opt for the device that isn’t actively trying to kill them, but that still lets them stand around looking cool with their friends.

For more information on Vulcan Vape, please visit www.vulcanvape.com.

Sam George is a contributing writer at Weld for Birmingham and a Weld Local correspondent. Send your feedback to editor@weldbham.com.