What we can and cannot conclude about the harms of vaping – the good, the bad and the ugly of existing research and discourse on the risks of e-cigarette use

This presentation will provide an overview of the latest research to assess the long-term health effects of vaping, both in terms of relative (compared with smoking) and absolute risks (compared with not using anything at all). It will also briefly cover other novel nicotine delivery devices that are becoming more popular, specifically nicotine pouches, and how these compare with e-cigarettes. The talk will examine examples of frequent misrepresentations of findings, either underplaying or overplaying the consequences of e-cigarette use, and summarise what we can reasonably claim about the risks of vaping at this point in time, given the existing evidence. It will conclude by highlighting important gaps in the literature and will provide suggestions for what future research should focus on in order to improve our understanding of the population impact of vaping