Adam Braithwaite of Omaha was putting his 3-year-old in the car seat when he realized that his car and his kid smelled like cigarette smoke.

"I just thought, 'What am I doing to my kids, here? I've got to stop smoking,'" he said.

That, more than anything, made him decide to quit for good. No more false starts.

He did quit, but he didn't have to give up cigarettes to do it. He found an alternative to patches, gum and cold turkeys: electronic cigarettes.

The increasingly popular smoking substitute smokes like a cigarette, looks like a cigarette, feels like a cigarette, glows like a cigarette and contains nicotine like a cigarette.

But it's not a cigarette. It's a slender stainless-steel tube. When someone puffs on an e-cigarette, a computer-aided sensor activates a heating element that vaporizes a solution, usually containing nicotine, in the mouthpiece. The resulting mist can be inhaled. A light-emitting diode on the tip of the e-cigarette simulates the glow of burning tobacco. The device is powered by a rechargable lithium battery.

E-cigs don't emit that harsh odor of tobacco smoke, and the exhaled mist dissipates instead of lingering, making secondhand smoke a non-issue.

Advocates of e-cigs say it's a great way to quit smoking because the nicotine mist contains no tar or any carcinogens of tobacco smoke.

After Braithwaite went from smoking to "vaping," as it's called, he decided to start selling e-cigs. He's opened a new business in Omaha called Vapor Options, which is now selling e-cigs to customers in 18 states.

The biggest boon for e-cigs in places like Lincoln and Omaha is that they don't violate local (or soon-to-be statewide) smoking bans.

That's why Braithwaite is meeting with as many bar owners and managers as possible, letting them know about e-cigs and trying to get the establishments to put up stickers that say "e-cigs allowed."

"They can get their smoking crowd back without the smokers being intrusive to the person next to them who doesn't use it," he said.

However, he noted, don't light your e-cig up without asking your bartender for permission. E-cigs are still in that new, bizarre stage where people tend to be a little perplexed.

The potential reintroduction of "smoking culture" into bars and nightclubs has anti-smoking groups nervous.

"I understand why people use the nicotine replacement aids," said Serena Chen, regional tobacco policy director of the American Lung Association in California. "But I don't understand why people want to pretend that they're smoking."

Chen believes that many ex-smokers will conclude that the e-cigarette is harmless and be lured back into the smoking trap.

"If you had a serial killer who liked to stab people, would you give him a rubber knife?" Chen asked. "This just boggles the mind."

Health officials are also casting a wary eye on e-cigs. Sellers, advocates and opponents say it's only a matter of time until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates this "new drug," potentially pulling them from the market beforehand.

In the meantime, Braithwaite's trying to get his business going. The levels of nicotine can be adjusted from "high" to no nicotine at all in e-cigs, and most of Braithwaite's products contain relatively low levels of nicotine when compared to the rest of this emerging industry.

"Everyone's products will have to meet guidelines soon," he said, "which is a very good thing. I'd rather have regulations in place."

The San Jose Mercury News contributed to this story. Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.