A comprehensive Australian study has become the first to assert that vaping is likely to cause cancer, confirming after years of research that vapes are not safer than cigarettes.
The study, conducted by UNSW cancer researchers, comes before longer-term reviews into vaping have been able to confirm an exact cancer risk. However, it used the emerging evidence to conclude that vape chemicals put users at a greater risk of cancer.
That finding is based on over 100 clinical studies, animal experiments and laboratory research of the chemicals produced by e-cigarettes.
Combining all the results, researchers concluded that carcinogenic chemicals are present in vapes and therefore increase users’ risk of oral, throat, and bladder cancer, even if they weren’t regular smokers before taking up e-cigarettes.
The study the first to assert that vaping on its own can cause cancer, rather than in connection or comparison to regular smoking.
The noted cancer risk disproves the idea that vapes are healthier than smoking, since users who’ve never picked up a cigarette will inhale carcinogens in a vape.
“This review has clearly indicated that vaping by itself can cause cancer,” Public Health Professor Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman said in a press statement.
“There is recent emerging evidence, as outlined in this review, that indicates an association with a few cancers,” he added.
Meanwhile, University of Melbourne Professor Michelle Jongenelis said the findings of the review were a long time coming.
“The finding that e-cigarettes are likely to be carcinogenic is not at all surprising,” Jongenelis said.
“Public health advocates have been saying for years that the products contain carcinogenic chemicals, so it was only a matter of time before this evidence emerged,” she explained.
Jongenelis said the results are particularly troubling given the vape industry’s “deliberate targeting of children”, which exposes users to carcinogens at a young age.
The findings have prompted some experts to call for action on the government’s part, stressing the importance of laws restricting vapes to pharmacy-only access for people who are using them to quit smoking, as well as education campaigns about the risks.
“Prioritising the enforcement of these laws is essential,” Professor Becky Freeman said.
In 2024, the Federal Government announced a major crackdown on vapes by banning them for non-therapeutic use, prohibiting disposable vape imports, and spending tens of millions on vape recovery programs and educational campaigns.
Even tougher penalties were introduced this year, when police were given expanded powers to crackdown on the black market sale of vapes.
While longer-term research is still in the works, this new study asserts a link between vaping and cancer and offically puts to bed the notion that it is a risk-free alternative to cigarettes.
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