The review, led by the University of NSW and released on Tuesday, has found these kinds of vapes are likely to cause lung or oral cancer. "Objectively and from the totality of available literature ... e-cigarettes are likely to cause lung cancer and oral cancer," lead researcher Bernard Stewart told reporters. "Not only are we concerned about cancer development, but we cannot definitively say these things are safer than smoking." As vapes have only been available for sale in Australian since about 2008, it will take decades for scientists to gather enough long-term information from people who have only vaped to definitively prove e-cigarettes cause cancer. But this study has enough data for its authors to urge regulators to act, comparing the situation to early studies on cigarettes.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 30, 2026 20:42 UTC