Close, But No Cigarette

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A Florida company called "Smoking Everywhere" has been aggressively marketing a cigarette-like smoking device of the same name in shopping mall kiosks nationwide, and has now reportedly enlisted help from steroid-tainted baseball player Jose Canseco to plug the device. The company's eponymous "Smoking Everywhere" electronic cigarette combines a nicotine-containing flavor cartridge, an atomization chamber, a small electronic chip and rechargeable lithium battery to create a device that looks, feels and tastes just like a cigarette. It's end even glows red when puffed on, but emits nicotine vapor instead of smoke. The company advertises its "e-cigarette" as a "healthier way to smoke" and suggests customers use it where smoking is banned -- in coffee bars, taxicabs, airports, restaurants and at sporting events. In addition to tobacco flavor, customers can choose from coffee, mint, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and cherry-flavored cartridges. The e-cigarette currently sells for U.S.$149, and packs of five flavor cartridge refills, each one of which is equivalent to about twenty cigarettes, sell for $9.99. The device and the way it's being marketed are drawing scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which may consider it a "new drug" and force its withdrawal from the market until the manufacturer backs up health claims about the product with scientific data. The classification would force the manufacturer to get FDA approval before marketing it.