Much has been written about e-cigarettes since they first started to become popular early in the 2010s. A PubMed search returns over 10 000 articles including the terms ‘e-cigarettes’ or ‘vaping’. Research has established that e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes, effective for smoking cessation and were initially primarily used by people who had smoked cigarettes. Since approximately 2021, new forms of disposable e-cigarettes rapidly became popular in many countries, including among never smokers, particularly adolescents and young adults. These devices typically deliver nicotine more effectively than older types, are sold cheaply and are widely available (as opposed to only being sold in specialist vape shops).

This rapid growth in the availability and use of disposable e-cigarettes in many countries raises important new research questions. In outlining our call for research on disposable e-cigarettes, we sought submissions that assessed the harms of, and addiction to, new disposable devices; sought to understand their appeal, marketing and harm perceptions; evaluated effectiveness for reducing cigarette cravings, supporting quit attempts and smoking cessation; described the epidemiology of use, including prevalence by key subgroups, the profile of users over time, and characteristics relating to use; estimated the extent to which use is displacing smoking or use of other e-cigarettes; modelled the impact at a population-level under varying assumptions and policy or regulation scenarios; or estimated the environmental impact of the products....