They are already a familiar nocturnal sight on the streets of London - huddles of windswept smokers lighting up outside pubs, clubs and bars.

Health benefits

Turkey is considering introducing a ban on smoking, an idea which is provoking very mixed reactions.

news centre

03-01-2008

Emine ÖZCAN
If a ban on smoking cigarettes, including bars, restaurants and nightclubs, were to be put into place, what would happen?

Smokers can puff legally at indoor bars and cafes with a battery-powered "electronic cigarette" because its nicotine hit comes in a vapour.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed that using the device would not breach the Smokefree Environments Act, which extended workplace smoking bans.

Lyttelton health researcher Dr Murray Laugesen is involved in safety tests of the product - which has a glowing tip to emulate real cigarettes - for the China-based company that makes it.

Electronic cigarettes are probably not covered under the state's smoking ban since they don't give off smoke, according to Bob Brammer of the Iowa Attorney General's Office.
But the New Age stogies still pose a health risk, says Iowa Pharmacy Board Executive Director Lloyd Jessen.
Crown 7 produces a line of electronic cigarettes, cigars and pipes that contain no tobacco. The user puts a nicotine capsule inside the pen-like rechargeable device, and then puffs on one end. The other end lights up just like a cigarette even though this product does not burn.

5:00AM Thursday January 10, 2008
Smokers are being asked to test their habit with an electronic cigarette which delivers nicotine without the harmful effects of tobacco, in an Auckland University study.

Researchers from the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the university are calling for volunteers from the Auckland area for the trial.

The trial is one of two aimed at smokers that the university is undertaking.

HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - It feels like a cigarette, looks like a cigarette but it isn't bad for your health.

A Chinese company marketing the world's first "electronic" cigarette hopes to double sales this year as it expands overseas and as some of China's legions of smokers try to quit.

Golden Dragon Group Ltd's Ruyan cigarettes are battery-powered, cigarette-shaped devices that deliver nicotine to inhalers in a bid to emulate actual smoking.

The Chairman of the Fight Against Cancer Department, Professor Murat Tuncer, sent a warning to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, for licensing the product, and to the stores which distribute them.

By RUTH HILL - The Dominion Post | Thursday, 10 January 2008
An electronic cigarette that gives smokers their nicotine hit without the other harmful ingredients in tobacco smoke might help them beat their addiction, scientists say.

Auckland University researchers are recruiting 48 smokers who want to quit to take part in a world-first trial of the "e-cigarette".