Clinical trails are set to begin on "Smoke-Break," a so-called "liquid cigarette" that the manufacturer hopes to market as a smoking-cessation aid.

The Madison (Wis.) Capital Times reported April 27 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light for a Milwaukee-based firm to start testing the device, which looks like an unlit cigarette but is filled with a fruit-flavored gel containing nicotine. Rather than inhaling cigarette smoke, the user ingests the gel.

"I was a smoker for 20 years and thought there had to be a better way to quit than the other smoke cessation products on the market," said inventor Brett Roth. "The thing that makes this work is the oral aspect. It is not a patch, pill, lozenge or gum. I wanted to duplicate the act of smoking, without the smoke."

Each Smoke-Break tube contains 1.5 milligrams of nicotine, about the same as in a single cigarette.

"I am extremely optimistic that the method of delivery of the nicotine replacement is what makes the difference, the hand-to-mouth action, except you don't inhale it. You don't suck it into your lungs," Olson said. "A lot of it is absorbed right in the mouth, as it is with nicotine gum, which was deemed safe. Hopefully the pattern will be that use will decrease. The person would occasionally want to use the device, but they wouldn't resume smoking."