Disposable e-cigarettes and candy-flavoured nicotine pouches are among a new wave of products targeting young people and driving a rise in tobacco and nicotine addiction, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Monday.
Speaking at the opening of a global tobacco control conference, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the growing appeal of these products among children.
“Schools are the new frontline in the war against tobacco and nicotine, where companies are actively recruiting generations of addicts,” he said.
Citing a WHO report released last month, Tedros noted that nearly 15 million teens worldwide now use e-cigarettes, during the 11th meeting of state parties to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
While he acknowledged the significant progress made over recent decades in reducing tobacco use, he warned that more than eight million people still die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
For the past 20 years, tobacco consumption among young people “has declined by one third globally,” he said, adding that this decline has prompted “tobacco manufacturers to develop new products to attract new customers.”
The UN health agency questions claims by the tobacco industry that vapes and other products are safer alternatives to traditional tobacco or useful aids to quit smoking.
“There is no evidence of their net benefit for public health and mounting evidence of their harm,” Tedros said, emphasizing that these products are being used to recruit young smokers.
The WHO chief also highlighted that the recent report showed “in 63 countries from which data are available, the prevalence of vaping among adolescents is on the average nine times higher than among adults.”
“Let’s be clear, the companies that make these products are not motivated by harm reduction or public health. They’re motivated by one thing and one thing only, gigantic profits for their shareholders,” he added.
Tedros called on all countries to regulate nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes, and heated tobacco “at least as strongly as they regulate conventional tobacco products.”
He welcomed the action of countries that had banned such products outright and urged others to implement “strict controls on flavours, packaging, marketing and sales protections against industry interference and enforcement of age restrictions.”
