The vapor of electronic cigarettes filled the New York City Council building Thursday as smokers puffed away in protest of a proposal to ban the devices in a number of public places during a committee hearing.

The ban would prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in restaurants, offices, parks and other public places, similar to how the city's Smoke-Free Air Act banned cigarettes in 2002.

New York City Council members heard testimony from both sides of the debate at the hearing, including public health experts who said continuing to allow the smoking of e-cigarettes indoors undermines the efforts of officials to protect people from secondhand smoke.

"The primary concern of the Health Department is the enforceability of the Smoke Free Air Act against conventional cigarette smoking," said Dr. Roberdt Farley, chair of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to Al Jareeza. "Because we know that that has been enormously important not just in protecting people against secondhand smoke but also reducing smoking rates overall and making it less socially acceptable."

However, Dr. Gilbert Ross disagreed, telling the committee that "Dr. Farley said numerous times 'we don't know what's in the vapor, we don't know what's in these things.' We sure do know what's in the vapor and nothing harmful is in the vapor. E-cigarettes seem to be a potential public health miracle," reports CBS New York.

Researcher Lucy Papova discussed some findings before the committee that contradicted those claims. "E-cigarettes emissions contain harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone and others," she said.

Other advocates against the proposal testified that e-cigs have helped them to quit smoking real cigarettes, which are substantially more harmful.

"This is the first time in my life that I've found something that actually allowed me to abstain from analog cigarettes," said Ilona Orshansky. "And at this point, they actually disgust me."

A spokesman for the American Lung Association also voiced disapproval of e-cigs. "We do not need to get to the place where we're replacing secondhand smoke with secondhand e-cigarette emissions," said Michael Seilback.