The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are doubling its efforts to obtain scientific data about the effects of electronic cigarettes, or vaporizers, which is rapidly becoming a trend in among Americans.

Three teams of experts are assigned to focus on gathering information about e-cigarettes, particularly the amount of puffs taken by "vapers", ways on how people are tampering with the gadget to make it provide more nicotine through scouring Facebook posts and the influence of displays and price promos to minors.

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Devoting $270 million to these researches plus 45 others, the FDA aims to uncover the risks of using vaporizers before more Americans get addicted to the trend, avoiding possible health hazards in the process.

Though the agency needed the data "yesterday", researchers told Reuters that findings may not be presented until 2018 due to the slow pace of improvement in discovering what particular compounds are in the vapors and whether certain flavors, such as bubble gum and butterscotch could attract children to use them.

Small studies were conducted on possible risks in using electronic cigarettes found particles of metal and silicates in the vapor which may cause breathing problems.

Some organizations have concerns about possible addiction to the use of e-cigarettes because of the nicotine-- a stimulant drug also found in tobacco-produced in the e-cigarette vapors. However, whether it increases or decreases overall nicotine addiction is still unclear.

Meanwhile, the $2 billion-worth e-cigarette industry insists that the FDA should wait for the research results before they declare any regulations because doing otherwise may drive manufacturers out of business by 'unproven fears' about the products.

According to an FDA spokesperson, the agency will base its regulatory decisions on the best data available stating that establishing a framework will not take many years since the FDA could probably obtain basic authority to regulate the products next year.

"We'll have first results within two years," researchers lead by Yale University's Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin stated adding that they are targeting to gather complete results in four to five years' time.

Tagsvaping, vaporizers, electronic cigarette, e-cigarette, smoking, nicotine, risks