The World Health Organization, has stated report, that e-cigarettes are fueling an “alarming” new wave of nicotine addiction, with millions of children now addicted to vaping.
The findings of the new report titled “WHO Global Report on Trends in Prevalence of Tobacco Use 2000–2024 and Projections 2025–2030” are based on 2,034 national surveys, covering 97 per cent of the global population.
In its new global report, the WHO stated that more than 100 million people worldwide are now vaping, including at least 86 million adults—mostly in high-income countries—and at least 15 million children aged 13 to 15.
In addition, in countries with available data, children are, on average, nine times more likely to vape than adults.
The organization claimed that the industry was promoting vapes as supposedly less harmful than cigarettes but was, in fact, aggressively targeting young people and causing children to become addicted.
Etienne Krug, the WHO’s Director of Health Determinants, Promotion, and Prevention, said in a statement: “E-cigarettes are fueling a new wave of nicotine addiction. They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”
In addition, the WHO reported that globally, fewer people are smoking, with the number of tobacco users declining from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024, despite the world’s growing population.
The number of tobacco users has decreased by 120 million since 2010, representing a 27 per cent relative decline. However, one in five people worldwide still use tobacco, contributing to millions of preventable deaths each year.
According to the report, although tobacco use has steadily declined among both men and women across all age groups from 2000 to 2024, women have been at the forefront of quitting tobacco.
The prevalence of tobacco use among women decreased from 11 per cent in 2010 to just 6.6 per cent in 2024, with the number of female tobacco users declining from 277 million in 2010 to 206 million in 2024.
By contrast, more than four out of five tobacco users worldwide are men, with just under one billion men still using tobacco. The prevalence among men has decreased from 41.4 per cent in 2010 to 32.5 per cent in 2024.
The report states that the prevalence of tobacco use in Africa is the lowest globally, at 9.5 per cent in 2024, and the region is on track to meet the 30 percent reduction target. However, due to population growth, the absolute number of tobacco users continues to increase.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that millions of people are quitting or avoiding tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries worldwide.
Ghebreyesus declared: “In response to this strong significant, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster, more quickly, stronger decisively to implement tobacco control policies.”
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