California lawmakers called Monday for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate electronic cigarettes, especially the marketing of the nicotine devices to young people.

Rep. Henry Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat who skewered tobacco chieftains at famous 1994 hearings where they claimed tobacco was not addictive, released the results of a congressional staff investigation with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called, “Gateway to Addiction? A Survey of Popular Electronic Cigarette Manufacturers and Marketing to Youth.”

The lawmakers called it “the first comprehensive investigation of e-cigarette marketing tactics,” and said it had been compiled “using responses from eight e-cigarette manufacturers … and other publicly available information.”

The Food and Drug Administration has promised to regulate the devices but has not taken action yet. There are currently no age restrictions or uniform warning labels on the devices, which heat liquid nicotine to create a vapor. Nicotine is highly addictive.

The surveyed companies appeared to be marketing the devices to young people by providing free samples at youth-oriented events, airing commercials on youth-oriented programs, and marketing flavors such as Cherry Crush, Chocolate Treat, Peachy Keen and Grape Mint, the congressional report said. Several of the companies said they favor regulation.

The report found that:

–Between 2010 and 2011, the number of U.S. adults who had tried e-cigarettes doubled.

–The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last fall said that in one year, 2011 to 2012, the share of high school students who had used e-cigarettes more than doubled from 4.7 percent to 10 percent.

–More than 20 percent of the middle school students who reported using e-cigarettes said they had never tried traditional cigarettes. E-cigarette sales have been doubling each year since 2010 and are projected to reach $2 billion in 2013.

–One Wall Street analyst projects that the consumption of e-cigarettes will overtake traditional cigarettes in the next decade.

–E-cigarette makers’ marketing expenditures doubled from 2012 to 2013, to nearly $60 million.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), in March, urging that his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hold hearings on the electronic cigarette industry.

Waxman and Durbin were joined by the Democratic chairs of several Senate committees, including Sen. Barbara Boxer of California.