Imagine sitting in class and seeing a plume of smoke but not smelling fire; you look around and notice someone smoking an electronic cigarette or vapor pen.

This technology, created to help smokers quit, has been rapidly growing in popularity over the past decade. People can be seen smoking electronic cigarettes and vapor pens just about anywhere, including the occasional San Jose City College classroom.

“Willful or persistent smoking in any area where smoking has been prohibited by law or by regulation of the college or the district” is subject to suspension or even expulsion, according the SJCC Student Code of Conduct.

But if there is no smoke is it really considered smoking?

Inside electronic cigarettes and vapor pens, “a battery converts liquid nicotine and/or flavors into a fog machine-type vapor known as propylene glycol,” according to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Since the e-cigarettes emit a vapor, users argue that this technology should not be classified as smoking, and vapor should be permitted indoors and in various non-smoking areas.

These devices remain unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but they intend to “issue a proposed rule extending the FDA’s tobacco product authorities,” beyond cigarettes and tobacco, and “include other products like e-cigarettes.”

With the lack of regulation on these products, research on the long-term and second-hand vapor effects remain very minimal, as the chemical makeup varies from hundreds of suppliers.

While little is known about the effects of these products, the act of vaping is similar to that of smoking classic cigarettes. The user inhales a substance, and, in the act, produces a second-hand emission.

Until regulations are placed on electronic cigarettes and vapor pens, businesses and schools need to update smoking policies and define whether this new technology is considered the same as cigarettes.

Just as regulations, laws and restrictions were placed on cigarettes, we need to get with the times and do the same for electronic cigarettes and vapor pens.