Let's talk e-cigarettes, May 2026

What this episode covers

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Jonathan Livingstone-Banks, University of Oxford, UK. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Associate Professor Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Dr Jonathan Livingstone-Banks lecturer & senior researcher in evidence-based healthcare in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Dr Livingstone-Banks is part of the Tobacco Addiction Group within the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. He carries out research in the field of tobacco control and evidence synthesis and is involved in many Cochrane Reviews on tobacco control topics. Dr Livingstone-Banks is also a philosopher interested in the philosophy of evidence-based healthcare. In the May podcast Jonathan Livingstone-Banks discusses the findings of his overview of systematic reviews on the impacts of e-cigarette flavours. This is set against the backdrop of the first market authorisation of non-menthol, non-tobacco flavoured e-cigarettes in the US. The overview of reviews includes 32 reviews, 11 of which are higher quality and 21 of lower quality, and covers 1967 primary studies. Jonathan Livingstone-Banks outlines how e-cigarette flavours have the potential to impact a range of outcomes including e-cigarette and combustible cigarette use, safety profile, appeal, and perceptions of harm and how these may differ across different population groups. Overall, he considers that the data on flavours is limited and the impacts of e-cigarette flavours on e-cigarette and cigarette use are inconclusive. Further studies are needed to shed more light on this topic. Reference for the overview of systematic reviews discussed in this podcast: Livingstone-Banks J, Travis N, Conde M, Chen Y(C), Zi P, Jarman H, et al. The impacts of e-cigarette flavours: An overview of systematic reviews. Addiction. 2025;120(7):1327-1344. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70017 This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and Interventions for quitting vaping review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. Our searches for the EC for smoking cessation review carried out on 1st May 2026 found: 1 linked report (10.1186/s13063-026-09622-6). Our search for our interventions for quitting vaping review carried out on 1st May 2026 found: 1 new study (10.1016/j.acap.2026.103328) and 1 ongoing study (ACTRN12626000336381). For further details see our webpage under 'Monthly search findings': https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1 For more information on the full Cochrane review of E-cigarettes for smoking cessation updated in November 2025 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub10/full For more information on the full Cochrane review of Interventions for quitting vaping published in November 2025 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD016058.pub3/full

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