Fe Miao Nan, executive director of the Beijing-based Ruyan Group Ltd., smokes an electronic cigarette. The products are not approved for sale in Canada but are available for purchase online. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)

A U.S. tobacco company has been ordered to pay $152 million US in damages to the estate of a woman who started smoking at age 13.

A jury awarded punitive damages of $81 million Thursday in addition to $71 million in compensatory damages awarded earlier in the week to Willie Evans and the estate of his mother, Marie. She died of lung cancer in 2002 at age 54.

The Suffolk Superior Court lawsuit in Massachusetts claimed Marie Evans started smoking after Greensboro, N.C.-based Lorillard Tobacco Co. gave away free cigarettes outside her low-income housing project in Boston in the early 1960s.

Lorillard said it plans to appeal.

A judge has yet to rule on allegations that Lorillard committed unfair or deceptive acts when it handed out the free cigarettes.

In other tobacco-related news, a new review of studies suggests that electronic cigarettes — devices that produce a nicotine mist absorbed into the lungs without burning tobacco — show promise in fighting tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.

"Few, if any, chemicals at levels detected in electronic cigarettes raise serious health concerns," Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health and co-author Zachary Cahn conclude in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Public Health Policy.

"Although the existing research does not warrant a conclusion that electronic cigarettes are safe in absolute terms and further clinical studies are needed to comprehensively assess the safety of electronic cigarettes, a preponderance of the available evidence shows them to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes and comparable in toxicity to conventional nicotine replacement products."

Ban threatened on e-cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has threatened to ban the sale of e-cigarettes, and anti-smoking cancer groups such as the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association have called for the products to be removed from the market.

Earlier this month, a U.S. appeals court ruled the FDA can regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products and not as drugs. The ruling means import of the e-cigarettes can't be blocked.

The campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has urged the U.S. government to appeal the ruling.

In September, the FDA followed Health Canada's lead by sending warning letters to distributors of e-cigarettes.

Last week, the Australian Medical Association and Australian anti-smoking groups said e-cigarettes with nicotine have not been tested for safety and could pose a serious health risk, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

E-cigarettes are available to Canadians through online sales. Health Canada says they are not approved for sale in Canada.

With files from The Associated Press