Electronic cigarette substitute set for trials

You suck on it, it smokes, the end glows and it gives you nicotine - but it's not a cigarette.

Christchurch smokers may get the chance to try the Ruyan e-cigarette, a Chinese smoking substitute that delivers nicotine in a harmless mist through a cigarette-like device, this year.

Christchurch doctor and anti-smoking campaigner Murray Laugesen has been testing the device for its Chinese manufacturers in preparation for a launch in this part of the world.

He is planning clinical trials on the device that would involve "hundreds of people".

Activated when the smoker sucks on the end, the electronic cigarette glows at the tip, produces harmless theatrical smoke and conveys nicotine from a reloadable cartridge to the smoker's lungs.

Laugesen has completed the first of several trials for Ruyan to test the product's efficacy and safety.

The tests found the e-cigarette decreased cigarette cravings as effectively as the Nicorette inhaler already on the market, but most smokers preferred the e-cigarette's taste and said they would recommend it to a friend, Laugesen said.

The device has been on sale in China since 2004 and in the United States this year, but was only in the first stages of New Zealand testing.

Laugesen's first impressions of the e-cigarette were positive.

"It's the first product I've seen that looks as if it can compete with tobacco," he said.

"It's interesting watching smokers. Usually on about the third puff, a look of surprise comes over their face because they get light-headed."

The device sells in the US for about $US200 ($NZ256), with refills, which last between one and four days, selling for $US5 ($NZ6.40) each.

It contains a microchip that senses pressure on the mouthpiece and warms the nicotine mist. The nicotine canisters must be certified as a medicine and such aspects as shelf life would have to be tested before it could be sold in New Zealand.

- © Fairfax NZ News