{"id":383776,"date":"2026-04-17T06:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:19:09","slug":"vaping-likely-to-cause-cancer-canterbury-university-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383776\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaping likely to cause cancer, Canterbury University study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/p>\n

\nA new study from Canterbury University shows vaping is likely to cause cancer.
\nPhoto: AFP\n<\/p>\n

* This article has been updated to include comments from the Vaping Industry Association of New Zealand (VIANZ) about its view of the limitations of the study. An additional comment has been added from the study author regarding the cancer risk being unquantifiable. <\/p>\n

A new study from Canterbury University shows vaping is likely to cause cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The research published on Friday in the New Zealand Medical Journal looked at the chemical composition of “vape smoke” and assessed its cancer risk using data from published animal studies.<\/p>\n

The Vaping Industry Association of New Zealand (VIANZ) said the study was a theoretical risk assessment based on chemical and mechanistic data, not human outcomes.<\/p>\n

It said there was currently “no epidemiological evidence demonstrating cancer outcomes attributable to vaping”.<\/p>\n

Lead author and toxicology professor Ian Shaw said it was impossible to definitively conclude that vaping caused cancer without actual data of people who had contracted the disease – which was at least a decade away.<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/p>\n

\nLead author and toxicology professor Ian Shaw.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

“It takes at least 15 years for cancers to develop after exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. I don’t want us to be waiting those 15 years to get some data to say that vape smoking does or does not cause cancer.”<\/p>\n

Shaw said the study applied a slightly different methodology to predict the cancer risk to vapers.<\/p>\n

“We looked at the chemistry of vaping and we looked at the sort of chemicals used in vape juice.<\/p>\n

“We looked at what happens to those chemicals when they’re vaporised and when they’re heated because the process involves heating to produce the ‘vape smoke’.”<\/p>\n

He said the chemicals determined to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) at certain doses in animals were then compared to the calculated doses that people would get by vaping.<\/p>\n

“For example, formaldehyde is one of the chemicals [produced in vaping].<\/p>\n

“And when we got those doses that [vapers] might be exposed to and the doses we know cause cancer in animals we compared them to see if they were comparable or not – and indeed some of them are.<\/p>\n

“What that showed us was … the chemicals produced by the breakdown of the vape components, by heating them to produce the ‘vape smoke’, are definitely carcinogenic and they will very likely cause cancer in humans.<\/p>\n

“But we can’t quantitate that because we don’t have the absolute doses, we don’t have the absolute data on humans.”<\/p>\n

Shaw said vaping was likely to be less carcinogenic than cigarette smoking – therefore it was still an acceptable method to use to quit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, people who took up vaping were increasing their risk of getting cancer, he said – which was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a good idea to take up vaping in its own right.”<\/p>\n

Shaw said the chemicals in “vape smoke” could also cause inflammation in the lungs – which could indirectly cause cancer.<\/p>\n

“If you cause an inflammatory response, this leads cells to divide … so it increases the frequency of dividing, which in its own right can lead to cancer.<\/p>\n

“So not only do some of the chemicals cause cancer directly by affecting DNA, by changing DNA and making a cell cancerous, they can cause cancer production by causing errors in cells because they’re increasing the division.<\/p>\n

“You don’t want to expose people to chemicals that will do that – because we know those chemicals cause significant harm.”<\/p>\n

However, the group representing the manufacturers, retailers, and importers of vapes in New Zealand argued the claim that vaping was “likely to cause cancer” went beyond what could currently be demonstrated in human populations.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Devery, chairperson of the Vaping Industry Association of New Zealand (VIANZ), said it conflated theoretical hazard with real-world risk.<\/p>\n

“This is not a human outcomes study, but a theoretical risk assessment based on chemical and mechanistic data,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the author acknowledged that cancer risk from vaping was “unquantifiable” and that long-term epidemiological data would be required to establish any causal relationship.<\/p>\n

“We would also note that, despite more than 20 years of vaping product use globally, there is currently no epidemiological evidence demonstrating cancer outcomes attributable to vaping.”<\/p>\n

He said while it was appropriate to highlight that no vaping product was risk-free, it was equally important to reflect that regulated products operated under controlled conditions that materially limited exposure to harmful compounds.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study from Canterbury University shows vaping is likely to cause cancer. Photo: AFP * This article…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-383776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}