Full disclosure
An insurance policy is a legal contract – when you enter into an insurance agreement, there are many disclosures involved, on your part and the insurer’s, as part of the policy and claim. It is prudent that you provide full disclosure to ensure that your claim will be paid out without disputes. While life insurance companies do not specifically ask about ecig joints on life insurance applications, it is still a good idea to disclose usage to avoid any claim disputes arising from related deaths.
E-cig joints
An electronic cigarette, also known as an ecig, e cigarettes, personal vaporizer, PV, or as the french may call them, vaporisateurs, is an electronic inhaler that vaporizes a liquid solution into an aerosol mist, simulating the act of tobacco smoking. Ecig joints are an innovative new dry herb vaporizer, but instead of standard eLiquid (also known as e juice), it uses your favorite legal dry herbs.
E-joints are mini vaporizers that come packed with a wax form of THC and are shaped like cigarettes. There are many different versions and models of these, some are a one-time use pen that isn’t reusable, and there are others that are reusable such as this PAX 3 and others. Because they’re smokeless and odorless, you can discreetly puff on them in smoke-free zones. Many companies are promoting ecigs and ecig joints as a healthy alternative to smoking as they do not contain THC, nicotine or tobacco. It does, however, contain propylene-glycol, glycerin, tryptophan, melatonin, gaba, artificial flavors and legal dry herbs and therefore can be sold in convenience stores. For those using cannabis for medical conditions, many patients are able to receive their full dosage of medical canabioids without any carbon monoxide or other carbonized pollutants. ECIG CANADA is currently the only Canadian site offering the ecig joints.
Non-regulated – not supported by medical world
Ecigs and Ecig joints are not regulated or approved by Health Canada; however, they are not illegal in Canada. Often Canadian rules follow those of the US and right now the FDA is considering regulating the use and sale of ecigs – should this happen, further research will be done to determine short and long term risk – this will directly impact how life insurance companies respond to ecigs.
Usage is highly controversial; some doctors have recommended against inhaling these since we are unaware of the potential negative effects of vaporizing the material. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the efficacy of ecigs as an aid in smoking cessation has not been demonstrated and they recommend that “consumers should be strongly advised not to use” ecigs and ecig joints until a reputable national regulatory body has found them safe and effective.
Life insurance for electronic cigarette smokers
Insurance companies try to charge enough money in insurance premiums to cover the amount of money that they will have to pay out to the people who buy insurance policies. Insurance companies make an educated guess about how likely they will have to pay out on the insurance policies that they issue. The likelihood of having to pay out under an insurance policy is called the level of “risk.” Depending on what you’ve smoked and how much, you may be able to qualify for non-smoker rates from many companies. If you are a very occasional pipe smoker or cigar smoker, many Canadian companies will offer you non-smoker premiums. Generally if you smoke either of those less than once a month the insurance companies will offer you non-smoker rates.
Currently, the majority of life insurance companies on the market will give you “smoker” rates for the use of electronic cigarette… part of this could have to do with the fact that ecig joints have not been popular for long enough to assess the true risk. With increased usage and additional research on the potential long term effects, this will continue to change – in fact one company now offers a non-smokers rate to e-cigarette users so long as there has been no “regular” cigarette use in the past 12 months. Should this continue to be the trend, it is huge news as it can cut your life insurance premiums in half for those who use e-cig joints.
