The camera zooms in on a stubble-bearded hunk dragging on a
cigarette and blowing out a thick cloud of smoke with what seems to
be great satisfaction.
It resembles the TV smoking ads of yesteryear, now banned in most
of the world, yet this modern-day offering is approved for American
television viewers.
"You know what the most amazing thing about this cigarette is? It
isn't one," explains a narrator as the modern-day Marlboro Man
fixes the viewer with a broody stare before returning the reusable
smoke to a container that resembles the traditional pocket-sized
cardboard pack.
The NJOY "cigarette" is electronic -- its tip lights up with the
help of an LED and what appears to be smoke is actually water
vapour.
The actor is not smoking, but "vaping".
"Cigarettes, you have met your match," proclaims the ad for a
product that claims to mimic "the look, feel and flavour of the
real thing" -- minus the tar, ash, smoke and most toxins.
NJOY is one of a flurry of e-cigs entering the market as tobacco
prices skyrocket and smokers become ever more concerned about the
toxins they inhale.
But the jury is still out on whether the gadgets are safe or
not.
"Without question, e-cigarettes are safer than traditional tobacco
cigarettes," said Joel Nitzkin, of the American Association of
Public Health Physicians.
"They deliver nicotine, with only the tiniest traces of other toxic
chemicals."
But there are concerns that these battery-driven alternatives,
officially called electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), may
pose health hazards we are not even aware of yet -- just like
cigarettes before their ill-effects became clear.
"The safety of ENDS has not been scientifically demonstrated," the
World Health Organisation said in response to a query.
"The potential risks they pose for the health of users remain
undetermined."
The UN's health organ said some testing "suggests the presence of
other toxic chemicals, aside from nicotine", and "strongly advised"
consumers not to use them.
E-cigs first emerged in China in 2003 as an alternative to tobacco,
which kills nearly six million people each year.
Just like their predecessors in the 1950s and 60s, electronic
cigarettes are being advertised with attractive women and rugged,
virile men -- hinting at a better, more popular you.
It's a strategy that seems to work.
A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) last
month said 80 percent of users questioned in the United States,
Britain, Canada and Australia believed e-cigarettes to be less
harmful than their tobacco counterparts.
NJOY chief executive Craig Weiss told AFP that industry predictions
are for electronic cigarette sales, which have doubled in the
United States every year since 2008, to reach $1 billion (about
750,000 euros) in 2013.
"Growth in the category has occurred as a result of the millions of
smokers who are actively seeking an alternative to cigarettes," he
said by email.
The company would not comment on the health aspects.
According to Nitzkin, the hazard posed by traditional tobacco
cigarettes is about 100 times higher than today's smokeless tobacco
alternatives.
"When burned, cigarettes create a tarry residue that sticks to the
inside of the smallest bronchial tubes of the lungs and in the
alveoli, where the body absorbs the oxygen and releases the carbon
dioxide.
"This tarry residue stays in place 24 hours a day, seven days a
week for the life of the smoker," he said -- a side-effect that
ENDS do not have.
Yet the European Respiratory Society said this month it could not
classify e-cigs as a safe alternative to smoking, and stressed the
principle that tobacco users "should not trade one carcinogenic
product for another."
Last month, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned an ad
for an e-cigarette, Nicolites, saying: "claims that the product was
not harmful had not been substantiated".
Some researchers have also expressed concerns that non-smokers may
get hooked on nicotine through e-cigarette use, or that the gadget
would keep people addicted to nicotine who might otherwise have
quit.
Nicotine can be harmful to children, pregnant women and adults with
heart disease.
A recent study among 3,400 high school pupils in France showed that
12 percent of 15-to-16-year-olds who claimed never to have smoked
before had experimented with ENDS, and 19 percent of
17-year-olds.
"As a doctor, I cannot recommend the electronic cigarette," lung
specialist Bertrand Dautzenberg told AFP recently at the
Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris.
"But I would not interfere with a smoker who wants to take it up.
With a cigarette, there is a 50 percent chance of killing oneself.
With the electronic cigarette, we aren't too sure yet, but it is
probably less," he said.