“My friends have noticed a difference,” Altman said while sampling assorted flavors at Smoque Vapours, an e cigarette shop in the Loop. “They’ll say, ‘You smell good,’ instead of, ‘You stink.'”

The fast growing e cigarette industry has hitched its future to such testimonials, pitching its product as a safer and cheaper alternative to tobacco cigarettes. So far the business has escaped the reach of regulators, but from Washington, D.C., to the Chicago suburbs, that is changing quickly.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to label e cigarettes a “tobacco product,” a distinction that would give the agency power over their marketing, manufacture and sale. North suburban Mundelein just passed an ordinance banning the sale of e cigarettes to anyone younger than 18, and on Jan. 1 a similar law will take effect statewide.

Evanston, meanwhile, has gone even further, banning the use of e cigarettes anywhere smoking is prohibited.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of long term research on this, but we really wanted to make sure we were on the front end to protect our residents,” said Carl Caneva, assistant director of Evanston’s health department.

The lack of regulation has turned e cigarettes into a commercial Wild West, where basement chemists and giant corporations alike concoct mixtures that taste like everything from peach schnapps to Mountain Dew. The novel flavors concern anti smoking advocates, who note that teen e cigarette use recently doubled within a single year.

“I don’t think that there’s any question that flavors appeal to young people,” said Danny McGoldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “It’s just another way to help introduce them to the habit.”

Researchers aren’t sure of all the chemicals released by the products, but some say there’s ample reason for worry.

The American Lung Association, which favors strict regulation, cites a recent study that found chemicals such as formaldehyde and acetone in exhaled e cigarette vapor.

“We’re very concerned because we don’t know what’s in e cigarettes or what the health consequences of them might be,” said Erika Sward, the lung association’s assistant vice president for national advocacy. “Frankly, until the FDA begins its oversight of these products, I think everyone needs to proceed very cautiously.”

E cigarettes use tiny atomizers to turn nicotine infused liquids into an aerosol, which is inhaled by the user. They’ve been sold in the United States since the mid 2000s, but the Electronic Cigarette Industry Group says sales have boomed in recent years, turning the gadgets into a $2 billion a year business.

The group’s president, Eric Criss, said e cigarettes are intended to be a safer alternative for people who already smoke.

“We feel very strongly that we not be taxed and regulated as a tobacco product because our goal as an industry is to distinguish ourselves from traditional tobacco cigarettes,” he said. “We believe there’s a ladder of harm. Cigarettes are at the top of that, and our goal is to get people to move down that ladder.”

Electronic cigarette

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