are electronic cigarettes/hookah stick really a safer alternative to cigarettes?

CasaNorba
incase you dont know what they are they are these things...

bettersmoking.org/.../bluecig.jpg

i01.i.aliimg.com/.../734304555_302.jpg

www.shisha-pen.net/images/imgnewcomp8576opt.jpg

you know, electronic cigarettes. we sell them at my job and they supposedly they function the same as cigarettes except that they dont contain all those deadly chemicals such as nicotine, ammonia, etc. that can shorten your life and give you cancer or any other deadly diseases that you can get from smoking cigarettes.

the only thing you smoke out of them is vapor with flavored water. so therefore at the same time they are not addicting like cigarettes. another advatange they have over cigarettes is that they dont stink or cause those damage that are cause by second hand smoking and because of this restaurants, clubs, bars, etc will let you smoke them under their roof.

i know a few people that were once chronic smokers and have switch to these electronic cigarettes and now they are doing a lot better. one of them claimed that after switching to them he has forgotten that he was a ride or die smoker. he even smoked one infront of me and the smoke smell pretty good and wasn't as thick and suffocating as the smoke of cigarettes.

anyways, i just wanted to know. do any of you fellow gag members have any experience with electronic cigarettes? i myself never smoked in my life but i'm afraid to try them because i might become addicted to them like the real thing. plus the fact that they are safer than the real thing sounds too good to be true. i'm pretty sure that flavored water that they contain must have some weird chemicals that can also be bad for your health in some way
Updates
+1 y
people! "hookah sticks" and "hookah" are two different things.

these are "hookah sticks"...

image.dhgate.com/.../...ah-portable-disposable.jpg

and this is a "hookahs"...

http://g.psychcentral.com/new
are electronic cigarettes/hookah stick really a safer alternative to cigarettes?
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