Skip to main content

Table 2 Initial research traditions

From: Clearing the air: protocol for a systematic meta-narrative review on the harms and benefits of e-cigarettes and vapour devices

Discipline/tradition

Areas of research and evidence

Addiction

Addictiveness, dual use, progression to tobacco use (“gateway’)

Cessation

Cessation trials, unassisted cessation, reduction, population quit rates

Clinical practice

Position statements, clinician education, surveys of clinicians

Cytotoxicology

Testing of vapour and liquids

Environmental toxicology

Second-hand vapour testing, impacts on ecology (waste products)

Epidemiology

Prevalence

Industry

Advertising and trade practices, Big Tobacco, structure (market, internet sales, vape shops), products (invention, development)

Law

Briefings on regulation, regulatory status, regulatory process

Physiology

Effects of use on the body, effects of second-hand exposure, nicotine delivery

Poison control

Accidental and intentional poisoning

Product safety

Device safety evaluation, liquid contamination, nicotine content, labeling

Sociology

User beliefs and behaviours, public opinion

Tobacco control

Regulation as tobacco, impacts on tobacco control (“renormalization”), intra-disciplinary contestation

Toxicology

Vapour composition