LIFESTYLES WEEKEND, JANUARY 20-21, 2018 Makin’ that vapor Staff photo by Kathy Aney Glenn Purcell, Marcus Todd and Shelton Shipman blow out clouds of vapor. Local vape enthusiasts take hobby to competitive level By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Glenn Purcell blows a long stream of vapor and starts thinking. “It took me a while to remove ‘smoke’ from my vocabulary,” he said. “It’s not smoke. It’s steam. But the general public doesn’t know that.” Vaping has been touted by some as a way to quit smoking. The four people sitting in Kennewick’s Dr. Goodvape on a Tuesday afternoon all concur. But for them, it has become an active interest, an outlet for creativity and even a way to get competitive. Purcell, who works at Smoke City in Hermiston, makes frequent trips to the Tri-Cities to participate in vaping competi- tions or meet up with other hobbyists. “In Oregon, we don’t have a lot of the competitive side of things,” Purcell said. “The hobbyist side hasn’t taken off.” There is one dedicated shop in Hermiston, Essence Emporium. Owner Erika Friend said she sees a range of customers, from people looking to quit smoking to those who vape for fun and flavor. Purcell and most of his friends use box mods. Mods are metal tubes with a battery that powers a rebuildable deck atomizer (RDA). The RDA contains metal coils that heat up, vaporizing the liquid and creating steam. Box mods are powered by a computer chip, allowing a user to change the voltage or wattage of the device. Many hobbyists enjoy building their coils in different shapes and designs. “The hobbyist side really helped me,” said Marcus Todd, a bartender in the Tri-Cities. “I learned how to make coils and kept my hands busy. I quit drinking and kind of quit smoking at the same time.” While he doesn’t spend as much time building coils now, he will still make them for friends who ask. The purpose of building unique coils, Todd said, is to get different wire effects that are visually interesting and can increase the size of the vapor cloud. And that leads to competition, which can range from small local events to large expos. Some, known as “cloud chasers,” focus on blowing large clouds or columns, while others perfect tricks: shapes, rings, or “jellyfish,” where a vaper blows one ring, lets it drift and then blows another ring through the first. Chase Covert, manager of Electric Cloud in Kennewick, blows a ring of vapor, then quickly blows another, popping it through the Staff photo by Kathy Aney Glenn Purcell, of Hermiston, blows rings with vapor Tuesday at Dr. Goodvape in Kennewick. first with a quick motion of his hand. “That probably took me about six months of practicing,” he said. “It takes years to get good.” Ashley Britain, manager of Dr. Goodvape in Kennewick, co-owns Cloud Comps North- west, a company that works with shops to host events and competitions. Most of the events will charge a low fee for entry, around $1, and people can compete in cloud or trick competitions. “We’ll have brackets made, there’s rules,” Britain said. Prizes can vary, from store credit at the host shop to cash prizes. “The last competition at Electric Cloud, I think it was $500 for first prize,” Todd said. Amy Blaine, an employee at Electric Cloud, said as many as 100 will compete at local events. Regional events, such as the West Coast Vape Expo, will draw many more. Health concerns Though Purcell and his friends quit ciga- rettes through vaping, there are still many concerns according to health professionals. Mariah Hinds, Umatilla County’s Tobacco Prevention and Education Coordinator, said there is not a lot of research available about e-cigarettes and vape pens alone because they are fairly new products. “The data I do have separates cigarettes and non-cigarettes,” she said. But the “non-cigarette” category includes pipes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes. She said many people do use e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking, but it’s not recom- mended by health professionals. Ingredients in the liquid include propylene glycol (which the FDA says is safe in food and cosmetics, and is also used in artificial fog machines); glycerin (which is found in several food and drug products); flavoring; and often nicotine. While it is possible to vape marijuana, there is not a lot of crossover. The liquids for the two substances are different and require unique devices. Hinds said one concern is that many people are drawn to e-cigarettes because of the packaging or different flavors, which can be appealing to young people in particular. “Some of the flavors are approved for consumption under the FDA, but not for inhalation,” she said. Britain said she carries at least 90 flavors, most from local companies. Fruity flavors tend to be most popular, she said, edging out dessert flavors. Some mimic well-known products. “Swedish Fish is spot-on,” said Blaine. “It’s a little sweet for my taste.” Hinds said that while cigarette use is down somewhat with Oregon youth, e-cigarette use has jumped in the last few years. “From 2013 to 2015, it went from 5 percent to 17 percent,” she said. Hinds said the most successful way to quit tobacco is to make a quit plan, set a quit date, use FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy and talk with a tobacco cessation counselor. She offered a phone number for the Oregon Quit Line, 1-800-QUIT-NOW. Some health organizations have raised concerns about the effect of the high tempera- tures that e-cigarettes can generate. But shop owners and hobbyists say there are labeling requirements — Britain said 1/3 of a bottle’s label must be a warning. “All the horror stories you see out there about someone getting parts of their face blown off — all those cases are user error,” Todd said. Purcell said Oregon shops have faced some new challenges, with a law going into effect Jan. 1 that raised the legal age for purchasing tobacco to 21. “We probably lost half our business,” Purcell said. Britain said she was glad Washington passed a law to specifically regulate vapor products, distinguishing them from cigarettes. “They regulated it instead of condemning it,” she said. Some say it has helped them completely eliminate their use of nicotine. Britain said for her, it happened overnight. Once she started vaping, she never went back to smoking cigarettes.