You may have heard different things in the media about the side effects of vaping. This page gives an overview of what we know so far about how vaping can affect your health. Our information relates to legal e-cigarettes – ones that are registered with the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Always use legal e-cigarettes from a reputable retailer.
E-cigarettes are not risk-free. We don't yet know their long-term effects, so children and people who have never smoked shouldn't use them.
Many studies show that vaping is far less harmful than smoking. This is because e-cigarettes don’t contain cancer-causing tobacco, and most of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes are not in e-cigarettes.
Some potentially harmful chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes. But levels are usually low and generally far lower than in tobacco cigarettes.
There is no good evidence that vaping causes cancer.
But e-cigarettes are not risk-free. They can cause side effects such as throat and mouth irritation, headache, cough and feeling sick. These side effects tend to reduce over time with continued use. We don’t know yet what effects they might have in the long term.
E-cigarettes should only be used to help you stop smoking, or to stop you going back to tobacco. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is addictive. If you have never smoked, you shouldn’t use e-cigarettes.
