Fake Cigarettes, Fake Smoke, Real Nicotine

Some Debate Advantages Of Electronic Smoking Device

From a distance, it looks like Tal Broustin is lighting up a cigarette, right in the middle of Arundel Mills, a clear no-no. And he is trying to get others to take drags, too, luring passersby to his kiosk by asking if they are trying to quit smoking.

Up close, it is clear that Broustin is taking puffs not from an actual cigarette, but from a battery-powered gadget designed to look like the real thing. Called an "e-cigarette," or electronic cigarette, it contains no tobacco, gives off no smoke but instead is a nicotine delivery device that gives off heated water vapor. Some companies are pitching e-cigarettes simply as less harmful alternatives to smoking, saying that smokers who can't quit might be better off "vaping" one of their products. Other companies, though, are selling their e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tools, claims that have not been backed up by any science.

Regardless, the relatively new devices - available online, at truck stops and at mall kiosks like the one where Broustin works - are drawing fire, mostly from groups such as the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, and from scientists who say they fear the products may pose unknown dangers, even if they're not from the known carcinogens in cigarette smoke.

Some have called on the Food and Drug Administration to ban them immediately. The FDA says e-cigarettes are "unapproved drug-device combinations," and, in the past two months, has detained 17 shipments from China at the border and sent them back. "We don't know its safety profile," said spokeswoman Karen Riley.

Despite the recent FDA actions, the industry says more than 100,000 e-cigarettes have been sold in the United States, and the number grows every day.

"Relatively little is known about how they're used, how much nicotine gets into people, what other chemicals are coming along for the ride," said Dr. Jonathan Samet, director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California and a former department chairman at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore. "To make a therapeutic claim, you need to do the proper testing."

One selling point of e-cigarettes is that they can be used where smoking is banned - in bars, in restaurants, at the mall. Samet said he thinks people who use them could get even more nicotine than before because they will be able to "light up" in more places. One consequence of smoking bans, he said, has been that more people have quit smoking.