The end glows as you inhale. As you exhale, you puff out of what looks like smoke a cloud. It's vapor, like the fog you could see at rock shows, says M. Brad Drummond, MD. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.


All e cigarettes work essentially the exact same way. Indoors, there's a battery, a heating element, along with a cartridge that carries nicotine and other liquids and flavorings. Characteristics and prices change. Some are disposable. Others have refillable cartridges and a rechargeable battery.


Using an e-cigarette is called "vaping."


The nicotine within the cartridges is addictive. You'll be able to get withdrawal symptoms including feeling fidgety, depressed, irritable and troubled when you stop using it. It could be dangerous for people with heart problems. It could also harm your arteries with time.


Thus far, evidence indicates that e cigarettes may be safer than regular smokes. The biggest risk from tobacco is the smoke, and e cigarettes do not burn. But what's in them can change.


"E cigarettes may be less harmful than cigarettes," Drummond says. "But we still do not understand enough about their long term risks or the effects of secondhand exposure."


Pro and Con

E cigarettes have triggered a furious debate among health specialists who share precisely the same goal -- reducing the disease and death brought on by tobacco. However they differ about whether e cigarettes make the problem worse or better.

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