Electronic cigarettes, or "e-cigarettes," have taken off as a novelty item to the point where more and more states are grappling with how to handle them. Some, including Hawaii, already have decided on a course that restricts their sale to minors, which seems the most prudent policy.

And now Hawaii has joined an appeal to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take e-cigarettes under their regulatory umbrella.

In a letter sent last week, the 42 names, almost all of them of attorneys general from various states, included Hawaii AG David Louie. Also among them was Bruce Kim, executive director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection, which has the enforcement power of the AG on consumer issues.

On July 2, Hawaii’s own ban on the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18 was signed into law, but the problem is national in scope and requires federal action.

The letter urged the FDA to meet its own Oct. 31 deadline to issue regulations restricting advertising and marketing e-cigarettes to youth. Although these products are different from tobacco cigarettes, it does make sense that their marketing should be barred from sale and marketing to minors, the same as other nicotine-delivery products such as the nicotine patches used as aids to stop smoking.

The problem is that e-cigarettes — battery-operated devices with elements that heat a nicotine liquid and release a vapor — have no regulatory oversight and thus no clear control of ingredients, manufacture or potential health effects.

According to an article published in August by the Journal of the American Medical Association ("The Regulatory Challenge of Electronic Cigarettes"): "Different e-cigarette brands are engineered differently, affecting the character and potential toxicity of the vapor. … Liquids used in e-cigarettes vary with respect to concentrations of toxicants, and the quality control in e-cigarette manufacturing is questionable."

Some will make the argument that e-cigarettes lack the cancer-causing impact of tobacco cigarettes and thus should be seen as a preferable option that should be encouraged. That may be found to be the case, but much more study is needed.

The AGs and other critics point to the use of fruit and candy flavors, as well as the marketing of reusable cigarette "skins" that depict video-game characters and other trendy designs, as evidence that manufacturers already are trying to appeal to youth. They cite national surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a doubling of their use among students between 2011 and 2012.

Locally, Pallav Pokhrel, a researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, recently published a study showing that e-cigarette users tend to be younger. And at UH-Manoa, the administration has adopted a campus-wide smoking ban, to take effect in January, a policy that includes e-cigarettes as well.

Kristen Scholly, who chairs the health promotion section at University Health Services, thinks this is the way to go. E-cigarettes may lead nonsmokers to pick up the decidedly unhealthy habit of tobacco smoking, she said.

"Nicotine is addictive, and if you’re addicted to nicotine you’re going to get it any shape that you can," she said.

E-cigarettes may prove to be an effective tool for smoking cessation, once there is some quality control applied through regulation. But for now this is not a product that is ready for prime-time release, where children and teens are concerned.