August 20, 2026

expert reaction to RCPCH review of the impact of vaping on children

A review published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at the impact of vaping on children. 

Dr Nicola Lindson, Associate Professor at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, said:

“As noted by the authors of the paper, the types of evidence included in their review make it very difficult to establish whether vaping causes the health harms discussed in their paper. Many of the studies included were surveys which do not provide the strongest evidence on health harms.

“Although the authors have looked at the quality of the studies included in their review, the way that the results are presented make it difficult to work out whether the higher quality studies resulted in different findings to the lower quality studies. This review has not been able to determine whether regulated nicotine vapes are associated with the same health harms as non-regulated nicotine vapes.

“It is important to consider this review 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.”

‘Impacts of vaping on children and young people: a systematic review’ by Paula Oyella et al. was published in Archives of Disease in Childhood at 00.01 UK time on Thursday 20 August 2026. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2025-330125

Declared interests

Nicola Lindson: “I have no conflicts of interest to declare”