The ego t electronic cigarette Industry Group-Priceangels.com

With millions of adults switching over in part or entirely from conventional to rechargeable e cigarette, Connor says the battery-powered vapor-producers may be "the breakthrough product that gives the smoker an alternative." Cigarette smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., could be drastically curtailed by the devices, he said.

Senators and state attorneys general are clamoring for the Food and Drug Administration to quickly restrict the sale of electronic cigarettes, but the past president of the American Lung Association, Charles Connor, says e-cigarettes may be "the breakthrough product" that stomps out carcinogen-packed conventional cigarettes."I tried all my life to get my mother off smoking, without success," Connor told U.S. News. "I just buried her in December due to the failure of her lungs, undoubtedly due to cigarettes. I am deeply committed to eliminating tobacco cigarettes from the American scene."

"The smoking rate did go down a lot, but it has plateaued around 20 percent, so that's been a great frustration to public health organizations," Connor said. "Might not these be the things that get America off cigarettes?" E-cigarettes have saved my life. I smoked at least two packs of non filter cigarettes everyday for 36 years, from the age of 16 to the age of 52. I tried to quit using various methods including cold turkey, nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers and even hypnotism. Nothing worked until I tried e-cigarettes last October. I have stayed away from regular cigarettes for almost a year now, with no withdrawal symptoms.

The hiring of a high-profile health advocate came less than a week after 37 state attorneys general and several U.S. senators asked the Food and Drug Administration to apply restrictions on bvuD3s2d conventional cigarettes in the 2009 Tobacco Control Act to e-cigarettes, a move that could ban popular flavor options and restrict advertising.

Some ego t electronic cigarette customers fear FDA regulations – expected to be proposed in October – may squeeze smaller online-based companies out of the marketplace, forcing them purchase inferior products sold by large companies, including traditional tobacco companies scrambling to enter the e-cigarette market.

E-cigarettes, he said, are "[not] necessarily health products, but they are sure a lot safer than a tobacco cigarette and even opponents say that. ... If FDA's overall job is to regulate the tobacco industry with a view toward reducing its consumption and reducing the number of deaths, I think they need to take into consideration the role electronic cigarettes might play in doing that."Connor's primary role, ECIG President Eric Criss said, will be to "build bridges with the public health community [to start] a real dialog about what their concerns are."

Connor does worry that large conventional cigarette companies jumping into the e-cigarette market may "present optics problems" for the industry and "perhaps harden the opposition." In addition to hundreds of small- and mid-sized companies, all three of the major U.S. cigarette companies are now in the rechargeable cigarette game. Lorillard, which produces Newport and Maverick cigarettes, purchased the e-cigarette Blu brand last year. Philip Morris USA's parent company introduced its own e-cigarette brand in August, following Reynolds American's June debut of its own e-cig.