Electronic cigarettes popular in no smoking areas

GREENVILLE, N.C. - More than 2 million people across the nation are smoking electronic cigarettes, but are they really a healthier option and can you smoke them in “No Smoking” areas?”

"It's just a matter of preference," said Allen Mendenhall, an electronic cigarette smoker, "I smoked it and smoked it and never picked up a real cigarette."

The E-Cig uses a battery to vaporize a liquid called propelyene glycol which contains nicotine and water, along with flavoring agents, which are then in inhaled by the user, just like a real cigarette.

"Yes, it really helps, it works for me," said Mendenhall.

To find out just how much it really works, Nine on Your Side called the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, a group that supports the electronic cigarettes and researches their effectiveness.

"It's not called ‘smoking’ we call it 'vaping'.  You are just simply inhaling a vapor and exhaling a vapor," said Tom Kaklis, co-founder of the TVECA.

It's a vapor with close to 500 less ingredients than a real cigarette, meaning fewer carcinogens in each puff and virtually no second-hand smoke since it's not smoke at all.  Manufacturers say it's only water vapor.

Nine on Your Side discovered the E-Cig is regulated and approved as a tobacco product by the FDA, but health experts still question the manufactory’s claims of a healthier product.

Something proponents to the E-Cig say they've been monitoring for years.

"I have not heard of a single incidence of harm from anybody using the electronic cigarette and we have been in this business since 2007," said Kaklis.

Kaklis says they do continuously test to make sure the E-Cigs are dispensing the right amount of nicotine as stated by the packages.

Mendenhall says he was recently asked to leave the Olive Garden restaurant in Greenville.  He says he was told "no smoking allowed," but Mendenhall says he wasn't smoking, he was vaping.

"I just do it so I can sit down and relax after I have a meal," said Mendenhall.

“There is no second hand anything.  I could put 50 people in my office here vaping the e-cig and you won’t smell anything so there is nothing harmful to exhale when you use an E-Cig," said Kaklis.

In 2010 North Carolina legislators passed the controversial Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law.  It bans people from using cigarettes in most public establishments.

Since the E-Cig Mendenhall uses is not a cigarette and you can't actually smoke it, we asked Paul Stone, President and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association were it falls in the law.

"Electronic cigarettes under the law that we helped pass two years ago are allowed," said Stone, but there’s a catch, "The restaurant owners is allowed, if they want, to have a policy on their own that says we don't allow e-cigs. "

Meaning, even though North Carolina law allows people to use the E-Cig in public places where cigarettes are not allowed, Stone says individual owners can chose to not allow it in their businesses, which could have been the case with Mendenhall and his trip to Olive Garden.

Nine on Your Side contacted Olive garden to find out why Mendenhall was asked the leave the restaurant.

They did not return our calls.