The popularity of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, will be targeted by the South Australian Government as it establishes whether legislative and regulatory controls should be applied.

Health Minister Jack Snelling said the battery powered devices, which can resemble cigarettes and allow users to draw a nicotine vapour into their lungs rather than smoke, have so far escaped regulatory controls.

"Legislation that bans cigarette sales to minors, smoking in enclosed areas, tobacco product promotion and tobacco product display does not apply to e-cigarettes, and the committee will look closely at this," he said.

E-cigarettes are seen by many as a less dangerous alternative to smoking and have proved popular for long-time smokers who find it difficult to quit.

They have provoked outrage among anti-smoking lobbyists who said little was known about their long-term health impacts.

While the devices and flavoured vapours are available at stores in SA, the liquid nicotine itself has to be imported by the user due to restrictions that apply under poison control regulations.

This has not curtailed their use, however, with a subculture emerging of ex-smokers who often congregate at stores to share new flavours and blends of e-cigarettes.

Cancer Council Australia believes that while the devices were almost certainly less harmful than smoking, they were not harmless because they could re-normalise cigarette use in young people.

It believed loopholes should be tightened around their availability because larger numbers of people were quitting smoking and the availability of e-cigarettes could negatively impact this.

It pointed out that cigarette companies were increasingly investing in e-cigarettes, drawing parallels and overlapping markets for combustible and electronic smokes.

Labor MP Annabel Digance argued that nicotine was a poison in itself.

"From what I can understand from my research, there are no longitudinal studies on the effects on health of people that actually are either using these devices or for people that are actually subjected to the vapours in the environment," she said.

"[And] if children were able to purchase this product, which they are, that in itself can raise concerns."

Ms Digance said the committee would make recommendations to address the availability and supply, sales to minors, advertising and promotion, use in smoke-free areas, and product safety and quality control under tobacco regulations.

"Other Australian jurisdictions are also taking action around e-cigarettes," she said.