The agency is pushing for alterations² to US law due to uncertainties³ over the health effects of e-cigarettes and the rapid take-up of the devices.

 

The FDA also wants to limit vending⁴ machine sales of e-cigarettes.

 

"The tobacco product marketplace is evolving at a dizzying pace with many unanswered questions about the health effects of novel products," it said.

 

The new rules would also extend current US law to cigars, pipe tobacco, nicotine⁵ gels, hookah pipe tobacco, and "dissolvables not already under the FDA's authority".

 

No timetable has been given for the proposed changes to the law.

 

 

Use of e-cigarettes has expanded from thousands of people in 2006 to several million worldwide, with estimated sales of almost $2bn in 2013.

 

E-cigarettes are plastic or metal tubes that use an electrical coil to heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating a vapour that users inhale⁶.

 

The FDA is conducting research into the health effects of e-cigarettes, and who uses them, according to Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products.

 

"Right now for something like e-cigarettes, there are far more questions than answers," he said.

 

Under the proposed new rules, e-cigarette makers⁷ would be required to register their products with the agency and to disclose ingredients.

 

They also would not be allowed to claim their products are safer than other tobacco products.

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