A man in IL had tried all he could to stop smoking cigarettes, but he continued to smoke three packs per day. No drugs or patches helped.

And then he discovered e-cigarettes and he has not touched a real cigarette in more than a year. His wife is thrilled, as he is now in better health and does not have to ask him to brush before kissing him.

An e-cigarette evaporates proylene glycol that contains nicotine, and it is then inhaled just like a tobacco cigarette. It gives the smoker their nicotine fix, but contains no tar, carbon monoxide and thousands of other chemicals that a tobacco cigarette contains that is harmful to health.

Many health agencies and health officials in the US are limiting use of e-cigs just as tobacco cigarettes, and this strikes many observers as foolish. There even has been e-cigarette legislation in IL in the last year attempted that would totally ban e-cigs anywhere tobacco cigs are prohibited. That failed.

Health officials are concerned that they do not understand how e-cigarettes affect human health yet. Propylene glycol and also vegetable glycerin are used in most e-cig liquids. Both chemicals are approved by FDA as food additives and also are used in toothpaste and soap.

Health officials worry that the many flavorings that e-cigarettes contain could be harmful to the lungs and heart.

FDA says that they have found low levels of cancer-causing toxins in some e-cigarette flavorings.

In the UK, the national health agency has actually recommended that smokers use e-cigs to stop smoking, noting that vaporizers are 95% less harmful than cigarettes.

FDA is concerned that e-cig users in the US are accepting e-cigarettes as a safe alternative to cigarettes, when not enough is known about them yet.

But many former smokers say that using e-cigarettes helped them to stop smoking, which we all know is incredibly harmful to human health. And they also say that after a year of not smoking cigarettes, they feel much better, cough less and have much better endurance.