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Health Canada has, in fact, effectively prohibited nicotine-containing e-cigarettes to date, treating them like unapproved drugs, ordering businesses to stop selling them and seizing shipments at the border.

Yet they are still sold and used widely across the country.

Rona Ambrose, the federal health minister, asked the committee last year to look into the issue. She offered few hints Thursday about what the government would do with the MPs’ suggestions.

“We will review the findings of the report and respond in due course,” said Michael Bolkenius, a spokesman for the minister.

Powered by batteries, e-cigarettes heat up a liquid that creates vapour and mimics the sensation of smoking. They are meant to deliver a hit of addictive nicotine but none of the carcinogens in smoke.

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The public-health world has been divided over the issue, with some scientists and anti-smoking advocates convinced e-cigarettes are a potential disruptive technology that could demolish current smoking rates, and others doubtful of the benefits and fearful they will make smoking acceptable again.

Experts on both sides of the debate applauded the committee’s report.

“The conclusions are much better than we would have expected,” said Dr. Gaston Ostiguy, medical director of the stop-smoking clinic at the Montreal Chest Institute and a strong proponent of the devices.

The committee’s call for standards to govern the contents of e-cigarette liquid are particularly important, since users currently can never be totally sure of what they’re buying, he said.