It has been illegal to smoke a cigarette inside a public building for years, but the growing popularity of e-cigarettes has created a grey area.

One Maritime university is trying to clarify where it stands on the issue, and some advocates want other facilities to do the same.

The University of New Brunswick is one of the first universities in Canada to ban e-cigarettes from being used inside any of its buildings.

Barbara Walls of the New Brunswick Lung Association says UNB is showing leadership with the ban, and she would like to see more schools follow suit.

“We are pleased about this decision,” says Walls. “We would like to see e-cigarettes across the board treated as a tobacco product so any laws that apply to where and when and how you use a tobacco product should be applied to e-cigarettes.”

Staff at a Fredericton store that sells e-cigarettes says facilities should be free to regulate use inside buildings.

“The main point, we don’t want them lumped in with cigarettes themselves, especially if they’re being forced to smoke them in a place where there is other second-hand smoke,” says employee Stephen Rae. “Most of our customers choose to use this as a harm reduction tool.”

Some feel it’s unfair to lump cigarette and e-cigarette users together.

“That puts them at a disposition to relapse into smoking I guess,” says UNB student Josh Sheppard.

Health Canada bans the sale of e-cigarettes with nicotine in them, but in a note to faculty and students, UNB says it made the move to enforce the ban itself.

Other jurisdictions around the world, including the Nova Scotia government, have also considered banning e-cigarettes in public places.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore