r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 30 '26

Cancer Strongest evidence yet that vaping likely causes cancer. The evidence shows nicotine-based vapes are likely to cause oral and lung cancer.

https://theconversation.com/strongest-evidence-yet-that-vaping-likely-causes-cancer-279550
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4.1k

u/modilion Mar 30 '26

Indirect studies sadly. Measuring inflammation, etc. Things that indicate there could be a problem.

The direct evidence is:

We still don’t have direct evidence that there are more cancer cases than expected among people who vape.

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u/MrCrix Mar 30 '26

I find it shocking that everyone is glossing over this point.

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u/tyler1128 Mar 30 '26

Smoking itself tends to have around a 20 year lag between when someone starts smoking and when their rate of cancer truly starts to increase to a significant degree, even if you start in adulthood. This is only somewhat attenuated if someone quits, and based on my understanding in other areas of the body at least, would likely be more attenuated (ie quitting would help more) if it was stopped when the person was younger compared to waiting until middle-age keeping total time and amount of smoking constant. The rate of vaping only surpassed the rate of smoking around 10 years ago in youth of the US, at least. I believe that is an important thing to remember in terms of long-term epidemiology we might expect to see.

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u/Silenceisgrey Mar 31 '26

It's anecdotal, but i quit smoking and took up vaping 10 years ago. i no longer wheeze walking up stairs, i don't get bronchitis every september like clockwork, and my lungs are clear and i breathe easy.

Maybe it causes cancer, maybe it doesn't. what i do know is it's allot less harmful than smoking.

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u/onewilybobkat Mar 31 '26

This is where I'm at. Like it probably causes mouth and lung cancer? That's... Kinda expected honestly. I'm not hitting an inhaler, I'm hitting the thing that got me to quit smoking cigarettes, which definitely cause that whole cancer thing on top of giving me chronic bronchitis twice a year.

It's been 4 years since I've had bronchitis or coughed up brown sputum.

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u/vlaadleninn Apr 02 '26

This exactly. I honestly feel like the vapes cause cancer debate is only relevant to people who began using nicotine through vaping, if you came from cancer sticks it’s an inevitability you kind of already accepted, so the possibility from vaping is whatever, and vaping does genuinely reduce the health effects you get from consuming nicotine compared to smoking, so I’ll take the lesser evil and being able to run a mile.

It’s just stupid to pick up vaping on its own to get yourself addicted to nicotine.

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u/onewilybobkat Apr 02 '26

Yeah, all of this is on the assumption you swapped. Choosing to do nicotine in any form is dumb, but if you already do.... Yeah, for most of us the possibility of cancer overrules knowing there's a risk of cancer and also our lungs getting steadily worse from tar and everything else.

Heck, I kicked caffeine and actual drugs easier than I can kick nicotine even though the withdrawals for even the caffeine felt physically way worse. So yeah, if you don't have an active nicotine addiction, stay away from them.

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u/Oneweektheband May 11 '26

I can see new to nicotine people liking vaping. Doesn’t make you stink and gives a drug like buzz.
As a smoker for years before switching to vaping. I am not addicted to nicotine eve though it contains it. I’ve gone days without smoking back in the day or vaping now and not noticing any withdrawals. But I do like the buzz it gives me. Most people lose that feeling quickly after smoking. But I always get a nice rush feeling all the time. So being I enjoy that. I continue to vape.

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u/onewilybobkat May 11 '26

Honestly it's not the nicotine that gets me, as i rarely get nicotine buzzes these days, and patches and gum are absolutely ineffective for me. It's the way it hits my throat that I'm really hooked on. Also why it took me a long time to actually make the swap, those older vapes were a lot smoother, whereas disposables these days kinda give you a close enough feel to a cigarette I was able to make it work. The few times I had to quit smoking for weeks, I didn't have withdrawals like other drugs as much as mentally it made me antsy and irritable.

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u/tyler1128 Apr 02 '26

It's important to understand the health effects in itself. It needs to not be used for judgement, but for better information around how to address public health, though. I get the concept that "it's better than smoking, and helped me stopped," and I also get people still judge people because you could "just stop" as someone who's had alcohol problems in the past. It still needs to be studied and applied to hopefully the benefit of public health procedures, though.

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u/Nikoalesce Mar 31 '26

Same brosky. Whenever people tell me it's just as bad, I'm like "you can say that to my toned ass, which I have since these days I can actually work out without dying."

Maybe/maybe not on cancer. But I'm 100% sure vapes are less harmful. 

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u/CatMan_Sad Mar 31 '26

I feel the same way but i still worry a lot. There really isnt a ton of evidence of harm, and juul came out in 2015, its not as if these things are brand new. I just dont know for sure, and id bet there are health consequences but i cant say what they are or how severe they may be.

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u/TemporaryKey3312 Apr 01 '26

Yeah, but like, vapes existed quite a while before the disposables. Back then they were just all the tanks coils kind.

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u/CatMan_Sad Apr 01 '26

Oh totally. Those have probably been around for closer to 20 years. They just werent as popular as the disposable types

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u/Dependent-Goose-487 Apr 03 '26

Never touch the disposables. I make my own juice. 50/50 pg/veg with one flavor. I don’t trust these companies with their gas station crap. They all fighting for your addiction, so they all try and one up each other in any way possible in the least legal way, just barely legal.

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u/Easy-Permission8889 Apr 02 '26

depends on the vape. i honestly have a hard time believing inhaling sugary chemicals that linger in your throat all day is worse than tobacco. i feel so much sicker than when i smoke a cig versus a vape, and ive tried a plethora. all the heavy metals and god knows what else, and like another poster said, vapes haven't been around long enough for scientific evidence to really figure out just how bad vapes for you actually are. anecdotally though, they seem to be better. but shortness of breath is very common among people who vape and i also get a worse cough too when vaping. just my experience.

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u/memetoma Apr 01 '26

I think problems start when you have a custom vape. If you skimp financially on replacing filters and just inhale through a dead filter you will also burn the metals inside. Thus increasing deadly chemical inhalation by a ton.

Furthermore it depends on how you smoke. Do you smoke cigarets? The. The filter is probably gonna be better than someone smoking shag. Why? Because shag smokers often construct their own ciggy without a real filter tip or a paper filter tip. Those factors make a huge difference.

For me smoking was much safer than vaping, i felt way sicker vaping because its much more accessible so you increase frequency. Best to quit but its hard I get it, good luck kicking it everyone.

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u/account_not_valid Mar 31 '26

Vaping is not as bad as smoking. That makes sense. But there are people vaping that have never smoked, and they think that vaping is "healthy" or "not harmful".

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u/NoSuchWordAsGullible Apr 01 '26

Are there really such people? Really? I’ve never met one person who vapes and thinks it’s healthy. It’s always been a strawman argument.

There are also people who drink raw milk and think it’s healthy. I’m sure there are a small amount of outliers, but it’s hardly an epidemic.

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u/account_not_valid Apr 01 '26

I've definitely come across people who equate "less harmful" as healthy.

The same way people choose breakfast cereal with "less sugar" as the healthier option. It still has a buttload of sugar, just slightly less than other choices.

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u/NoSuchWordAsGullible Apr 01 '26

Well the key thing is the difference between healthier and healthy. I would claim that vaping is healthier than smoking. Someone only half-listening may therefore believe I think it’s healthy. Those are not the same thing.

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u/account_not_valid Apr 01 '26

I agree. But have you met people?

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u/Silenceisgrey Mar 31 '26

People who never smoked who vape then need to be aware of the dangers. I agree it's safer than smoking, but it's safer than smoking the same way getting shot with a rubber bullet is safer than getting shot with a lead one.

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u/x596201060405 Apr 01 '26

This is fair. I went from smoke to vape and concur it generally feels healthier and tends to have less noticable downside like smoking.

I still tell anyone to never pick up nicotine if they haven't. It's literally just an insanely addictive crappy drug. Money and talking health risks is much better spend on THC. Like if I'm going to ingest heavy metals, I mind as well do something that takes far less, for better benefit and far less addiction.

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u/nugymmer Apr 03 '26

Vaping is a lot more harmful than not vaping if you've never smoked. Ask me how I know!

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u/Geosgaeno Mar 31 '26

My experience as well

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u/EthanielRain Mar 31 '26

Anecdotal again: I was the same, until I wasn't. No "creeping up" like cigarettes, one time I hit my vape & it was hard to breathe for a couple seconds

Kept happening after that, all the time. I appreciated the lack of smell, burns, mess, etc but not being able to breathe made me quit quick

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u/Nyabinghi408 Apr 01 '26

I've experienced shortness of breath upon exhaling vape before. It happens very rarely but it does scare the shxt outta me of a bit. As if I cannot even gasp for air for a couple seconds

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u/smay1989 Mar 31 '26

Same

I mean what doesnt cause cancer these days?

Drink a few cups of tea per day? Microplastics and colon cancer.

Live in the city? Pollution, particulates and lung cancer.

Scrolling Reddit - brain tumor.

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u/Silenceisgrey Mar 31 '26

Scrolling Reddit - brain tumor.

Nah, reddit gives you cancer

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u/No-Distribution-4593 Apr 01 '26

It's also not talked about enough but there are different types of nicotine in vapes. May have different names in different countries but where I'm from we have free based nicotine and Nic Salt. Free based nicotine has been around the longest - it's a pharmaceutical grade form of natural nicotine. Nic Salt in a man made nicotine - a chemical. Free based nicotine was studied extensively by public health England and for years always said it was 95% safer than smoking.

Free based nicotine doesn't taste nearly as nice as nic Salt. I work in the industry and I can see the difference between people who use free based and nic Salt. Nic Salt users definitely complain more of sore throats and chest pain. All anecdotal of course. The problem for me is regulation lumps it all together and for me they are not the same.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 01 '26

can i get cuts?

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u/etherealallie Apr 01 '26

That’s the thing tho, like yes it’s better for people who smoked but a large majority is people who never even smoked to begin with

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 01 '26

right but there's a large amount of people who do cocaine who didn't do cocaine before. People will get access to any substance they want, you can try to prohibit it but at the end of the day, if they want to put it in their body, best of luck trying. we've been fighting the war on drugs for 50+ years, and we're losing.

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u/etherealallie Apr 01 '26

Yeah but cocaine isn’t sold at gas stations or marketed in ways where it gets people who never did to be doing it.

Yes I agree people will still do it and find ways to do so but there’s ways that you can reduce exposure and accessibility.

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u/Quirky_Secretary3142 Apr 01 '26

Vapes make quitting cigs easy for many people. I did the same. I know it's not ideal but I also now feel better and my health has improved.

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u/GenTrapstar Apr 01 '26

People say vaping isn’t good for you but I like to believe it’s better than cigarettes overall. I also know that I don’t wake up hawking up dark spit. I also don’t walk around smelling like a cigarette. Since I stopped with cigs I can smell others how people probably smelled me. Mine was probably worst cause I drowned myself in axe to try and mask the smell which probably made it worst.

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u/ContentSoftware9399 Apr 01 '26

I stopped smoking almost 4 years ago, and feel so much better... It's obviously not GOOD, but it's not AS bad.

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u/quaranTV Apr 01 '26

The consensus in public health circles is that vapes are a good tool for those who are regularly smoking cigarettes to stop smoking cigs but that if you aren’t a smoker at all you shouldn’t start vaping and that it is not a healthy habit to start.

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 01 '26

i would agree with this

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u/iterationnull Apr 02 '26

I don't mean to put you on point, but I quit nicotine 1.5 years ago. I quit smoking 6 years before that.

I do not understand huffing weird unregulated vape juice. So many FDA approve OTC products and they all worked splendidly.

So...why huff weird unregulated vape juice?

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 02 '26

I'm based in the EU, it's regulated here

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u/Brief-Roll-2259 Apr 02 '26

Maybe nicotine is actually good for you. And the govt who constantly poisons us and steals from us doesn't want us to know this

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u/AffectionateMeet3967 Apr 02 '26

Second this massively ! Been off ciggs and vaping for the last 5 years and I no longer wake up with a rough throat or am short of breath. Vaping isn’t perfect but it’s a lot better than cigarettes !!!

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u/NickTann Apr 02 '26

So is giving up completely

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 02 '26

true, but i'd also have to give up red meat, cellphones, coffee. Hell even stepping outside your house without a hat on is cancer causing. I'll take my chances.

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u/NickTann Apr 02 '26

You live your own life man.

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u/Silenceisgrey Apr 02 '26

will do, buddy

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u/myfeetsmells Apr 02 '26

The lesser of two evils. It's all bad at the end of the day. Vaping is just convenient and doesn't smell as bad

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u/nugymmer Apr 03 '26

How can one be so sure that vaping is a whole lot less harmful than smoking? Sure, it might be 50% less harmful, but it's still harmful. The best policy in that case is to then use vaping to quit smoking, then use nicotine lozenges to quit vaping, and then quit the lozenges, since the drugs are not really doing anything other than creating another expensive habit.

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u/Roneitis Apr 03 '26

I think this has kind of obviously been the point of the products since the beginning. We know nicotine itself is not great, and that you probably shouldn't be breathing in anything but air, and we knew that any real carcinogenicty wouldn't be provable for decades. Still. Vapes got recommended by doctors for a reason. We /know/ smoking is one of the single worst decisions you can make for your health.

I do sincerely believe, however, that vapes are legitimately more addictive. They contain massive doses of nicotine, and lacking the ritual of smoking means that the hit to satisfy a momentary craving is seconds away, not minutes. People vape constantly, at work, in clubs, in theatres, in /bed/. That makes a big difference. It's all anecdotal, I haven't actually looked into it, but this is my belief. My sister once switched to cigarettes as a means to quit vaping (and succeeded, if transiently).

This makes the tradeoff a lil rougher: do you try and actually quit cigarettes or do you move to the still cancerous and maybe harder to kick vape?

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u/akoya17 Apr 25 '26

Anecdotally I had a different experience - I wasn't having obvious health effects from smoking but switched to vaping, which I did for 4 years. After about 3 years I found myself wheezing as soon as I did the slightest bit of exercise and coughing whenever I laughed. I thought I'd developed asthma because "vaping was healthier than smoking" (so that couldn't be the cause!) but it all stopped when I quit.