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In the few short years since the term “electronic cigarettes” entered the Canadian lexicon, the popularity of the devices has exploded.

Electronic cigarettes are "less harmful" than traditional cigarettes, new analysis of recent studies has shown.

During 2001-2004, the average annual smoking-attributable health-care expenditures nationwide were approximately $96 billion. When combined with productivity losses of $97 billion, the total economic burden of smoking is approximately $193 billion per year."

The announcement kicked off a period of public comment so that e-cig makers and public health experts can raise concerns and give the FDA the necessary facts to write an appropriate set of final rules. Regulation is just like writing the rules of a new game—on one side there are businesses vying for industry-friendly regs, and on the other are public health advocates.

One of the great advantages of these things is that it’s perfectly legal to puff away at work. As you can’t actually light them, they don’t count as smoking. And as all they emit is a little water vapour, they aren’t even antisocial.

While the levels of the toxins were still much lower compared to conventional cigarette emissions, the findings fly in the face of the e-cigarette industries' claims that the handheld devices are just as safe as any other smoking cessation tool.

Walking down the streets of toronto I see more and more people using e-cigarettes. I see them enjoying their e-cigarette outside a bar or as they hustle down the street and it is easy to imagine that these e-cigs have replaced their previous form of tobacco intake, the cigarette.

In 2003, a Chinese pharmacist invented the e-cigarette as an alternative to smoking. Instead of lighting up traditional tobacco-filled cigarettes, smokers use a battery-powered device to inhale nicotine in the form of a vapor.

The study, accepted by the journal Addiction and published online Tuesday, comes as U.S. regulators weigh new rules for nicotine vaporizers. The e-cig industry and public health officials are battling over whether the devices should be treated as less-harmful cigarettes that help smokers give up tobacco or as a gateway that will lead adolescents to a deadly habit. Investigators from a cancer research center at the University College London conducted the study, which was partially funded with government and drug industry grants. None of the authors reported financial ties to e-cigarette companies, which adds to the report’s credibility.

Everything hangs on the Food and Drug Administration’s newly proposed plan for how it will regulate the emerging industry. If the FDA rules stand, the restrictions could wind up choking small vape businesses and clear the path for big tobacco firms poised to cash in on the trend.