New Orleans - They can look, feel and taste like cigarettes. They don't contain tar or tobacco, but can contain nicotine. They are called electronic cigarettes and they're sparking smokers' interest.
Tom Oliver smoked traditional cigarettes for 22 years, until he discovered electronic cigarettes.
"It is just similar enough to satisfy my craving." He explains how electronic cigarettes work.
Oliver points to his dissected e-cig saying, "This is the battery. It is a lithium re-chargeable battery. This is the atomizer that you screw together with the battery. And there is a wick that captures the fluid that is in here and wicks it down into the atomizer."
The atomizer turns the liquid -- with or without nicotine -- into vapor.
Dr. Charles Brown, a professor with LSU Health Sciences Center, is not sold on the e-cig.
"I don't see how anything that addicts you to nicotine is healthy," Brown said.
He also worries the hi tech gadget that offers fruity flavored vapor will addict a new generation to nicotine. And he wonders how Louisiana's Clean Air Act will deal with people smoking electronic cigarettes in places where traditional smokes are banned.
John Henry is not only an e-smoker, but he also sells them thru
www.truesmoker.com. He says since the fluid that fuels the electronic cigarettes comes in high, medium, low and no nicotine smokers can use the product to quit smoking -- though it is not the products' purpose.
"This is not a smoking cessation device. If you happen to quit smoking because of it, God bless you," Henry said. He and other smokers claim they feel much healthier since quitting traditional cigarettes.
