The Spokane Regional Health District is asking Spokane County and the cities within it to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes and nicotine to minors. The district claims that its call to outlaw electronic-cigarette sales to minors is the first of its kind in Washington state.

Sales of the cigarette-like devices and the addictive nicotine liquid they dispense currently are unregulated, says Kim Papich, spokeswoman for the district.

The district's tobacco prevention and control program recently completed a special emphasis project in which a review found that youths obtained electronic cigarettes in more than 90 percent of their attempts to do so, Papich says.

"The program's 14 undercover juvenile operatives obtained electronic cigarette products from vendors in Spokane County in 28 out of 31 attempts," she says.

An electronic cigarette is a tube roughly the size of a slender cigar that contains a cartridge of nicotine solution and a battery-powered heating element called an atomizer. When the user inhales through the tube, the airflow activates the atomizer, which creates a nicotine-laden vapor that looks like smoke, although no combustion is involved.

Most electronic cigarettes are tipped with a diode that glows like a cigarette ember when the atomizer is activated.

The health district asserts that the nicotine liquid, which is available in flavors such as chocolate, bubble gum, and cotton candy, is being marketed to children, and that retail outlets that sell electronic cigarettes are located in areas frequented by minors, such as shopping-mall kiosks.

Papich says the district is offering jurisdictions within the county advice and support in writing ordinances that would ban the marketing and sale of electronic cigarette products to minors.

"It's moving really quickly," Papich says of the ban request. "Several jurisdictions have contacted us, and we passed along boilerplate ordinances."

Spokane-based Smart Smoke Inc., which operates five retail electronic cigarette outlets in the Inland Northwest, says it supports the district's efforts.

Joshua Jamerson, Smart Smoke's CEO, asserts that electronic cigarettes aren't intended for use by minors, and the company is taking steps to ensure it doesn't sell the products to them.

"Our cigarette-replacement device is designed specifically for smokers looking for an alternative that works," Jamerson says.