Latest Resources
Perceptions of social media harms and potential management strategies: vaping case study
There was consensus among participants that e-cigarette related social media content can be harmful and government action is urgently needed. There was an identified need for the development of government led national-level regulatory frameworks, with government led appropriate legislation; identification of an organisation or organisations with suitable levels of regulatory power and resources to monitor, enforce and penalise noncompliant social media companies; accompanied by increased community awareness raising of harmful social media content and improved digital literacy.
An exploratory, randomised, crossover study to investigate the effect of nicotine on cognitive function in healthy adult smokers who use an electronic cigarette after a period of smoking abstinence
Overall, the nicotine containing products improved sustained attention and mood while reducing smoking urges, with the studied e-cigarettes having comparable effects to combustible cigarettes across the assessed cognitive parameters and mood measures. These results demonstrate the potential role of e-cigarettes to provide an acceptable alternative for combustible cigarettes among people who would otherwise continue to smoke.
The “Gateway” hypothesis: evaluation of evidence and alternative explanations
Evidence offered in support of the gateway hypothesis does not establish that ENDS use causes youth to also smoke cigarettes. Instead, this evidence is better interpreted as resulting from a common liability to use both ENDS and cigarettes. Population-level trends are inconsistent with the gateway hypothesis, and instead are consistent with (but do not prove) ENDS displacing cigarettes. Policies based on misinterpreting a causal gateway effect may be ineffective at best, and risk the negative unintended consequence of increased cigarette smoking.
Increased e-cigarette use prevalence is associated with decreased smoking prevalence among US adults
Population-level data continue to suggest that smoking prevalence has declined at an accelerated rate in the last decade in ways correlated with increased uptake of e-cigarette use.
Modeling the population health impact of accurate and inaccurate perceptions of harm from nicotine
Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that inhaling the smoke from the combustion of cigarettes is responsible for most of the harm caused by smoking, and not the nicotine. Accurate knowledge regarding the role of nicotine is associated with higher switch rates and prevention of premature deaths. Our findings suggest that promoting public education to correct perceptions of harm from nicotine has the potential to benefit public health.
Cytotoxicity, mutagenicity and genotoxicity of electronic cigarettes emission aerosols compared to cigarette smoke: the REPLICA project
Overall, this replication study supports the tobacco harm reduction strategy as having the potential to substantially reduce exposure to toxic combustion agents in adult smokers. Future studies are needed to advance in vitro methods in order to evaluate the long-term effects of electronic nicotine delivery systems.
Do sociodemographic risk profiles for adolescents engaging in weekly e-cigarette, cigarette, and dual product use differ?
Teens who have disposable income, live in a lower-income home or are gender diverse are more likely to use e-cigarettes, according to a new study at the University of Waterloo.
Instagram helps Brazilians dodge a national sales ban on vapes
As Brazilian law clashes with Meta’s policies, illegal vapes flood social media and the streets. The Brazilian government banned the sale, import, and advertising of e-cigarettes. The use of e-cigarettes has risen sharply in the country in recent years, with sales partly driven by social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of Brazilians who admitted they had vaped in the 30 days prior to being surveyed grew from just over 499,000 people to more than 2.87 million. A 2024 report from Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security about the illegal trade of e-cigarettes on the internet warned that there’s an “expressive amount” of accounts openly selling vapes on Instagram and “facilitating its access to a younger public.”
Forecasting the effects of smoking prevalence scenarios on years of life lost and life expectancy from 2022 to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
According to the research, reducing smoking levels to less than 5% by 2050 could increase global life expectancy by one year for men and by 0.2 years for women. This is equivalent to an additional 735 million healthy years for men and 141 million healthy years for women. Existing tobacco policies must be maintained if smoking prevalence is to continue to decline as forecast by the reference scenario. In addition, substantial smoking-attributable burden can be avoided by accelerating the pace of smoking elimination. Implementation of new tobacco control policies are crucial in avoiding additional smoking-attributable burden in the coming decades and to ensure that the gains won over the past three decades are not lost.
E-cigarettes: striking the right balance
Continued surveillance of e-cigarette and smoking in all age groups is warranted. Health authorities need to recognise the continuum of risk associated with all nicotine products, so that regulations are proportionate to the harm the products cause—ie, more stringent for the highest risk products (cigarettes) than those that are less harmful (nicotine medications, oral tobacco, e-cigarettes).9
