Are e-cigarettes beneficial for public health: Hume's guillotine - The debate continues?

Cigarette smoking is the most common preventable cause of death which has led to a search for healthier alternatives to tobacco smoke. Electronic cigarettes are devoid of many harmful constituents found in cigarette smoke and are therefore being positioned as safer alternative to tobacco smoke. The carcinogenic potential may be of lower magnitude compared with cigarette smoke, but it is still there. The use of e-cigarettes, however, is fairly new, so its long-term effects are still unknown. Moreover, they continue to posses the cardiovascular side-effects and are certainly as addicting. Thus on one hand while their substitution could lead to reduction of some side-effects of tobacco smoke, its use may be just shifting the modality of addiction and will be unlikely to lead to total abstinence from tobacco products. On the other hand there is a fear that its use could lead to loosening of the taboo currently associated with use of tobacco products and so the benefits of years of advocacy to ban tobacco products might be lost. Thus currently the scientific community is divided about role of e-cigarettes.