Eliza, the real damage done by cigarettes is mostly from the tars which are created by the burning. The nicotine is relatively harmless, were it not for its addictive quality. Separate the two and you can noticeably diminish the risks: the electronic gaspers simply deliver nicotine released by warming, through the lungs, rather than through the skin as in nicotine patches.
The problem lies rather in the psychology involved. Retaining an inhaled form means the fag companies still have the habit entrenched for anyone wanting to go back to cigarettes to hook into more easily: I suspect it's linked to a nipple fixation, a very powerful hook because it's rooted so far back in our childhoods. If you want to break this finally - and Jim's case shows why it is so attractive economically - then you have to break every grip the murderers have on their victims. I won't use a lesser word for companies which know that every day what they do will kill hundreds of people, it makes them outrank any terrorist organisation, and the pain they cause in doing so places them somewhere up alongside the greatest mass-murderers in history. They have no moral case, and the cost to our entire society so far outweighs their profits that I can see no rational case for not banning the stuff outright, bar perhaps for those who have already been addicted doing cold turkey, weaning themselves off. The major reason so many who try fail is because cigarettes remain available as a temptation.
If you want to smoke, don't do so at my expense, please. Your ilk did enough blasting it in my face when I was young, and now charge the consequences to the taxpayer, which includes me. Those over 65 may have started smoking before this was known, so can just about claim ignorance, although 50 years resisting the data by not breaking the addiction and surviving the consequences is rather stretching the credit they may be able to claim. Those between 18 and 65 have started smoking in a period when it was clear what the risks were, and must be told to break the addiction. And let the cost of this be charged to the remaining asset value of the cigarette companies after liquidation. Finally, for those under 18, if they still want to smoke, require them to hold private health insurance for the rest of their lives for the consequences.