A review published in Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at the impact of vaping on children. The paper, by Paula Oyella and colleagues, was released at 00.01 UK time on Thursday 20 August 2026.
Dr Nicola Lindson, Associate Professor at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, said the types of evidence included in the review make it very difficult to establish whether vaping causes the health harms discussed. Many of the studies were surveys, which do not provide the strongest evidence on health harms.
She added that although the authors looked at study quality, the way results are presented makes it difficult to see whether higher-quality studies produced different findings from lower-quality ones. The review also could not determine whether regulated nicotine vapes are associated with the same health harms as non-regulated nicotine vapes.
Dr Lindson said the review should be considered alongside the wider evidence base, which has found that nicotine vaping can help people who smoke to stop smoking, and that smoking tobacco is much more harmful than vaping nicotine.