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E-cigarettes: Threat or therapy?

Are e-cigarettes less harmful than real cigarettes? Advocates say they help smokers quit. But health officials aren’t so sure.

By Chelsea Conaboy

 |  Globe Staff  

  December 05, 2011

Former smokers who use e-cigarettes say the devices have saved them from a lifetime of smoking-related health problems. Yet public health and tobacco control officials have been loath to embrace them. For one thing, the devices are completely unregulated by the federal government, with no industry standards for safety in manufacturing or marketing. That has prompted some states and municipalities, including Boston, to enact regulations on their own.

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