By the numbers

Smoking is cool again. At least, that is, when actors like Stephen Dorff do it, and, do it the smoking-hot trendy way of electronic cigarettes.

The battery-powered gizmos use heated liquid, not tobacco, to deliver flavor and nicotine. They emit vapor, not smoke.

“I’m tired of being a walking ashtray,” Dorff says in a TV ad.

Many evidently share that sentiment. Since their 2006 U.S. debut, e-cigarettes have lit up the market, growing into a $2 to $3 billion industry, with scores of regional outlets, and some 466 brands and 7,700 flavors.

However, e-cigarettes have come under fire. Critics challenge hazy claims that the devices are safer than regular smokes. And the Food and Drug Administration is considering restrictions on flavors and marketing.

In August, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi broke with 29 other states’ attorneys general who urged the agency to bolster its proposals. While generally agreeing on federally regulating e-cigarettes, Bondi — addressing potential harm to Ybor City cigarmaker J.C. Newman Cigar — urged the FDA to “more narrowly tailor these overboard regulations.”

Yet, dubious claims about the salubrious nature of e-cigarettes is the sticking point for one of today’s columnists.

On the other hand, e-cigarette backers, including today’s other columnist, say “vaping” (inhaling an e-cigarette) can wean smokers off nicotine, spare bystanders secondhand smoke, and possibly extinguish conventional smoking.

10: The percentage of high schoolers who reported ever using an e-cigarette in 2012, up from 4.7 percent in 2011.

21: The percentage of adults who smoke traditional cigarettes and had used e-cigarettes in 2011.

$2 billion: The scope of the global e-cigarette market.