Use vapes to quit smoking, scientists say – despite cancer, depression and wheezing warnings
A major review published in the Cochrane Library has concluded that switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes does not put users "at risk of serious harm", with researchers arguing vaping is a proven and effective tool for quitting smoking. The findings sit awkwardly alongside a review published just a week earlier by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which linked vaping in young people to respiratory problems, depression, panic disorders and allergies, highlighting an ongoing scientific and public debate about the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes.
The Cochrane review found e-cigarettes are at least two-thirds more effective at helping people stop smoking than nicotine gum or patches, with senior author Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce saying evidence has consistently shown vapes are far less harmful than smoking. However, critics such as Professor Will Carroll warn the study overlooks risks to children, noting that under-16 vaping now exceeds smoking among that age group. Around 5.4 million UK adults vape compared with 4.9 million who smoke, and a UK-wide ban on selling vapes and nicotine products to under-18s takes effect on 29 October, alongside proposed restrictions on vaping in cars carrying children.
- Cochrane review says vaping is safer than smoking, aids quitting
- Contradicts recent study linking youth vaping to health problems
- Under-18 vape sales ban begins 29 October in the UK
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for e-cigarettes as a quitting tool argue that the priority must be harm reduction for the 4.9 million UK adults who still smoke, a habit that kills far more reliably and severely than vaping does. They point to the Cochrane review's finding that e-cigarettes outperform nicotine gum and patches by a wide margin, arguing it would be perverse to withhold or discourage a proven, less harmful alternative simply because it is imperfect. On this view, adult smokers deserve accurate, evidence-led information and access to the tool most likely to help them quit, rather than having caution about youth uptake used to limit options for those already addicted to a far deadlier product.
The case against
Sceptics and paediatric health experts argue that headline reassurances about vaping risk obscuring a distinct and urgent problem: a generation of children and teenagers, many of whom never smoked, taking up a product now linked to respiratory illness, depression, panic disorders and allergies, with under-16 vaping reportedly exceeding smoking in that age group. They contend that framing vapes as broadly safe risks undermining new safeguards, such as the under-18s sales ban and proposed car restrictions, by sending a public message at odds with the caution paediatricians say the evidence demands. For them, the responsible course is to treat vaping as a genuinely useful but still incompletely understood substance, one that adult smokers might reasonably use to quit while regulators and messaging work hard to keep it away from children.
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