Experts wary as e-cigs begin clinical trials Smoke simulation: A range of the e-cigarettes used by Daniel Lucas. Photo: Steve Siewert Photo: Steven Siewert The first Australian clinical trial of e-cigarettes as quit-smoking tools will start this year but the government and some public health experts remain wary. E-cigarettes are battery-powered electronic tubes that simulate the effects of smoking by evaporating a liquid solution into nicotine vapour. Some mimic the look of traditional cigarettes - complete with glowing tip - but they produce only vapour, no smoke or ash. Don't get asthma anymore ... no more smoker's cough ... Daniel Lucas, 42, from Sydney. Photo: Steven Siewert While none has been approved for sale as a therapeutic good, the devices are legally available in Australia. But the nicotine solution is not available because nicotine is classified as a scheduled poison, so users are forced to order them online from unregulated overseas sellers. Australian e-cig community AussieVapers.com has 4000 members who swear by the gadgets, with one devotee saying "e-cigs are the greatest innovation in health since the invention of penicillin." Several members of AussieVapers said they had tried unsuccessfully for years to quit cigarettes but had done so within a month of switching to a vaporiser. Daniel Lucas, 42, from Rydalmere in Sydney, has been using e-cigarettes for just over a year, after smoking since he was 15. He said he previously tried prescription medication, sprays, gum and patches and nothing had worked. "I don't wake up in the middle of the night coughing," he said. My [sense of] smell has come back and my taste for food. I don't smell like an ashtray. British authorities are assessing the use of e-cigarettes as medicine and have included them in official quit-smoking guidelines, but the Australian federal health department does not support them.