By Loyd McIntosh

Perhaps nothing sends people to the fainting couch faster than smoking these days. Heck, just the idea someone within a country mile might be puffing away on anything resembling a lung dart is enough to give some a scorching case of the vapors. Maybe that's why this activity is called "vaping" in the first place.

On a more serious note, many Birminghamians are turning to smoking alternatives to either help end their cigarette addiction, or to simply enjoy time with friends in a social setting. One of the most popular forms of cigarette replacement is the Personal Vaporizer, often referred to as PVs or even pens, that produces a vapor instead of smoke. While the research is still inconclusive, vaping has spawned its own subculture of fans who say the new technology is a life saver.

"I believe in vape. It's a good thing. It's a great thing," says Craig Shaw, owner of Boxcar Vape, a shop and lounge in Avondale but soon moving to Crestwood. A former cigarette smoker, Shaw started the business after using vape pens to help quit a two-decade smoking habit. The 38-year-old started smoking cigarettes when he was 16, and after several failed attempts to quit, says vaping finally helped him put the cancer sticks down for good a little over two years ago. Vape shops have been popping up all over town in the last couple of years offering not only retail spaces to purchase PVs and the liquid solutions -- or "juices," as their known -- but also a place to hang out.

Many shops have a feel not unlike cigar shops. In fact, holding one of these PVs in your hand may remind one of a well-made Churchill. There are also dozens of local vape enthusiasts busy creating, marketing and selling local juices with a range of flavors and nicotine levels (zero to 12 percent), who are developing their own loyal following.

What began bubbling under the surface is now a fully formed subculture centered around vaping. "In the past three or four years with the advances in the devices and the different flavors, people are really into it. Every day in the shop we have a life-changing moment for somebody," Shaw says. "If somebody wants to come in here and quit, then we help them along that path. It's life changing, and you can't help but think there's going to be a culture that grows out of it."

PVs work as an atomizer, containing a small heating element that heats or "vaporizes" the e-liquid inside the device. Once the tip is placed in the mouth, the user presses a button and inhales the vapor that is then exhaled. Of course, what is exhaled looks like smoke, but is actually odorless water vapor that quickly dissipates. Also, unlike normal cigarettes, the device doesn't give off vapor while not in use.

Still, PVs and their first cousin, e-cigarettes, have an image problem. "One of the public misconceptions is that you can get secondhand smoke from them. But, you can't have secondhand smoke if you don't have firsthand smoke," Shaw says.

Despite the differences, some jurisdictions, such as Vestavia Hills, treat PVs like cigarettes, including them in public smoking bans and looking to tax the e-liquids in a manner similar to cigarettes. "I guess that's why they don't understand it and are trying to treat it like cigarettes and ban it," Shaw says. "They need to rethink what they're doing and go back to square one on the whole deal. It doesn't make any sense."

What The Heck Is Hookah?

Another cigarette alternative gaining popularity around Birmingham is hookah. Unlike vaping, which is tobacco-free and relatively new, hookah usesntobacco and has been around for hundreds of years. Thought to originate in Persia as early as the 1600s, hookah is tobacco mixed with honey or molasses, as well as other natural ingredients, then passed through a water basin and smoked through a tube.

Saeid Morshedi is one of the first people - if not the first - to bring Hookah to Birmingham, adding it as an option at his Inverness cigar shop, The Humidor Room. Originally from Iran, Morshedi is well known for his appreciation of fine cigars. However, hookah is an important part of his cultural heritage, which led him to introduce it to his customer base a few years ago. While now a significant part of his business, early regulars to his shop didn't know what to make of hookah. "People have this concept of when you smoke hookah, they're always thinking it's a bong," Morshedi says.

Traditionally, hookah tobacco is mixed with apples, known as double apple in parts of South Asia. Today, hookah tobaccos are mixed with all sorts of ingredients, such as bananas, strawberries and even cedar, a flavor that has become a hit with cigar smokers. The water acts as a filtration system, removing impurities and cooling the smoke as it is inhaled. Hookah has created a diverse following, from regular cigar smokers to older women who like to smoke hookah and have a glass of wine, to college coeds looking for an exotic cultural experience. "Hookahs are very flavorful, very social, and it brings people together, just like cigars," Morshedi says.

"We see girls coming in and they don't like smoking. They're like 'I don't like smoking. I don't have anything to do with it.' I'm like 'I bet you $10 if you draw and you feel anything or get weirded out or it's harsh or something, I'll give you $10 dollars,'" Morshedi adds. "So they do one draw, and all of a sudden, you see this smoke coming out of their mouths and it's cool and tastes so good and it's not harsh or burning them."

He hasn't yet lost that $10 bet.