BEIJING — With its slim, white body and glowing amber tip, it can easily pass as a regular cigarette. It even emits what look like curlicues of white smoke.
The Ruyan V8, which produces a nicotine-infused mist absorbed directly into the lungs, is just one of a growing array of electronic cigarettes attracting attention in China, the U.S. and elsewhere — and the scrutiny of health officials.
Marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and a potential way to kick the habit, the smokeless smokes have been distributed in swag bags at the British film awards and hawked at an international trade show.
Because no burning is involved, makers say there is no cocktail of cancer-causing chemicals and gases like those produced by a regular cigarette. There’s no secondhand smoke, so they can be used in places where cigarettes are banned, the makers say.
Health authorities question those claims.
The World Health Organization issued a statement in September warning there was no evidence to back up contentions that e-cigarettes are a safe substitute for smoking or a way to help smokers quit.
It also said companies should stop marketing them that way, especially because the product might undermine smoking-prevention efforts.
“There is not sufficient evidence that (they) are safe products for human consumption,” Timothy O’Leary, a communications officer at the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative in Geneva, said this week.
Unlike other nicotine-replacement therapies such as patches for slow delivery through the skin, gum or candy for absorption in the mouth, or inhalers and nasal sprays, e-cigarettes have not gone through rigorous testing, O’Leary said.
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration has “detained and refused” several brands of electronic cigarettes because they were considered unapproved new drugs and could not be legally marketed in the country, said press officer Christopher Kelly.
He said the determination of whether an e-cig is a drug is made on a case-by-case basis after the agency considers its intended use, labeling and advertising.
How it works
Ruyan, which means “like smoking,” introduced the world’s first electronic cigarette in 2004. It has patented its ultrasonic atomizing technology, in which nicotine is dissolved in a cartridge containing propylene glycol — the liquid that is vaporized in smoke machines in nightclubs or theaters and is commonly used as a solvent in food.
When a person takes a drag on the battery- powered cigarette, the solution is pumped through the atomizer and comes out as an ultrafine spray that resembles smoke.
Nicotine levels range from zero to 16 milligrams. The National Institutes of Health says regular cigarettes contain about 10 milligrams of nicotine.
