A group of people are sitting around a table in a city centre pub.

Around half of them stand up and declare they are going outside for a cigarette – smoking has been banned in enclosed public places where people might be working since 2007.

One woman remains in her seat but reaches into her handbag for a slim tube. She puts it to her lips and inhales, as one might a cigarette. A faint puff of vapour emerges from the tube.

Welcome to the rapidly growing world of the e-cigarette, in which liquid nicotine is vapourised and absorbed through the mouth. It gives the same nicotine “hit” as a traditional cigarette, but without the massive health risks associated with inhaling burning tobacco.

As of yesterday, it was announced that e-cigarettes – the “e” stands for electronic – are to be regulated and classified as “medicines” to tighten up the controls on this burgeoning market which sees e-cigs and vapour cartridges sold in a host of places – initially online but now in many corner shops.

Essentially, this means that manufacturers are to face tough new tests before they can sell their e-cigarettes as “licensed products”, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said.

The move will also mean that licensed e-cigarettes can be prescribed by medics to help smokers cut down or quit.

It is estimated that 1.3 million people across the UK use battery-powered e-cigarettes, which can look like real cigarettes but users inhale a mist of nicotine instead of smoke.

The general belief is that e-cigarettes are less harmful than ordinary cigarettes as they do not contain the cancer-causing tar.

But MHRA research found that nicotine levels can be “considerably different” from the level stated on the label and said the amount of nicotine per product was found to differ from batch to batch – which casts doubt on how useful the products are to people who want to cut down or to stop smoking, a spokesman said.

In the spirit of this brave new world, we took to Twitter to ask if people used e-cigs and whether they thought they were less harmful.

Rebecca Taylor, Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire & the Humber (@RTaylor_MEP) said: “Don't use #ecigs (lifelong non-smoker), but I recognise them as a valuable public health tool for harm reduction.”

Jack Beckitt (@JackBeckitt) replied: “A few friends have stopped [smoking traditional cigarettes] cos of switching to e-cigs, some still carry on enjoying ‘the tar-less experience’.”

When asked to expand on the friends who used e-cigarettes as an actual aid to quitting he said: “yep – tried all the aids that chemists do 2 no effect – can tell the pharmaceut giants don’t like – not a publicity gimmick as many think.”

Simon Cooke is a Conservative Bradford councillor for Cullingworth. He tweeted that e-cigarettes are the “best public health news in years.” I asked him to expand on this.

He said: “We have known for a long while that smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products is bad for our health.

“No-one seriously disputes this fact and it forms the basis for the continuing efforts to discourage the taking up of smoking, encourage people to stop smoking and to support people who make the effort to quit.

“Everywhere that has run these campaigns over the past 40 years or so has seen smoking prevalence fall from around six in ten people to just two in ten people. There is no doubt that this effort represents a success story for public health and for the use of price, regulation and information to reduce harm.

“There is no passive smoking risk, making the product safe for use indoors and, just as importantly, no lingering odour or residue such as we associate with smoking.

“The alternative – and the route being taken by many health professionals, I’m afraid – is to do what the tobacco industry wants us to do: effectively ban e-cigarettes forcing the million plus users back to smoking or to go ‘cold turkey’ and quit altogether.

“If e-cigarettes are banned, we will be condemning many people to death from an ideological attachment to abstention from nicotine as the only policy.”

Still, the MHRA is insistent on the regulation route. It says it won’t recall e-cigarettes already out there, but will tightly enforce future production.

MHRA’s group manager of vigilance and risk management of medicines, Jeremy Mean, says: “Our research has shown that existing electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-containing products on the market are not good enough to meet this public health priority.

“Some NCPs (nicotine-containing products) are already licensed and the Government’s decision to work towards medicines licensing for all these products is designed to deliver quality products that will support smokers to cut down and to quit.”