As they become more popular, the battery-powered cigarettes have become the center of a fight over how risky they are compared with traditional smokes, whether they are legal and, if they are, how they should be regulated.
E-cigarettes are made of plastic and metal and heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge, creating vapor that the smoker inhales. A tiny light on the tip even glows like a real cigarette.
Nearly 46 million Americans smoke traditional cigarettes. About 40 percent each year try to quit cold turkey or with other nicotine replacements, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But unlike patches or gums, e-smokes operate in a legal gray area.
The Food and Drug Administration and public health groups have sounded the alarm, saying they contain dangerous chemicals and are being marketed to children, and the federal agency has halted shipments of e-cigarettes at ports nationwide.
Some sellers of e-cigarettes sued the FDA last year after the agency instructed customs officials to refuse entry of shipments into the United States. A federal judge ruled that the FDA cannot stop those shipments, saying the agency had overstepped its authority. The FDA appealed and won a stay of that ruling, pending oral arguments that are set to begin next month.
The FDA claims it has the authority to regulate e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices, which would require proving — probably through expensive clinical trials — that they are safe and effective as a stop-smoking aid.
E-cigarette sellers would like to see them regulated as a tobacco product, following the same restrictions as traditional cigarettes and tobacco products.
Several states have tried to ban the sale of the products.
Users and distributors say e-cigarettes address both the nicotine addiction and the behavioral aspects of smoking — the holding of the cigarette, the puffing, seeing the smoke come out, and the hand motion — without the more than 4,000 chemicals found in a traditional cigarette.
