Tobacco companies are now embracing electronic cigarettes to help offset the loss of traditional cigarette smokers - even as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepares to put forth regulations that could put the skids on the nascent e-cigarette industry.

The nation‘s largest tobacco company, Marlboro-maker Altria Group Inc., announced plans for the release of its electronic cigarette, the "MarkTen," at an investor meeting today. The company‘s Nu Mark branch will be introduced first in Indiana in August; consumers will have the option of disposable or rechargeable models, and classic or menthol flavors; the experience, executives said, "closely resembles the draw of a cigarette." The second-biggest U.S. tobacco company, Reynolds American, announced that it would bring its "VUSE" electronic cigarette to Colorado in July ahead of a planned national rollout. Reynolds American CEO Dan Delen, whose company sells Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, says he is committed to "transforming tobacco" as part of an effort to make the product less harmful.  And the third-largest U.S. tobacco company, Lorillard Inc., last year acquired "Blu" e-cigarettes, which make up about one-third of the electronic cigarettes sold at U.S. convenience stores, according to a Wells Fargo Securities estimate cited by the Wall Street Journal.

The industry‘s embrace of e-cigarettes, which are also known as vapor cigarettes, comes as Americans move away from traditional cigarettes. In 1965, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 42 percent of men and women over 18 years old were smokers; in 2010, only 19 percent smoked. (There are roughly 44 million adult smokers in the U.S. today, and another 12 million that use other forms of tobacco.) While the industry has been able to look to overseas markets for growth in recent years - particularly in the Asia Pacific region - health concerns have prompted increasing efforts to curtail smoking across the globe, including in Russia and China.

While there are now more than 200 models available, the e-cigarette industry remains tiny compared to the overall tobacco industry - e-cigarettes totaled about 0.5 percent of the overall domestic tobacco market last year. But it is far from negligible. Last November, the company Euromonitor estimated that $2 billion had been spent on e-cigarettes globally in 2011, stating that the industry has seen "booming growth" in just a few years. According to the CDC, about one in five adult U.S. smokers at least tried an e-cigarette in 2011.