Electronic cigarettes: WHO calls for strict regulations

Put a stop to the tobacco industry's strategies to attract new consumers.

This is the stated objective of the World Health Organization (WHO) through its report published this Tuesday on the fight against smoking.

“Nicotine is very addictive and electronic nicotine inhalers are dangerous and need to be better regulated,” WHO President Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

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Today, 84 countries have no safeguards against the proliferation of these products.

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York very involved in the fight against smoking, insists on these industrialists: "Their goal is simple: to make a new generation addicted to nicotine and we cannot let them do it."

As cigarette sales have fallen, tobacco companies have aggressively marketed new products like e-cigarettes and lobbied governments to limit their regulation.

This report is a call to action and an outline for building on the progress we've made.

https://t.co/lctBHTwmtE pic.twitter.com/e1cdBToJXO

- Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) July 27, 2021

Adolescents and young adults, priority targets

It is precisely the use of electronic cigarettes by those under 20 that particularly worries the WHO.

In its report, the UN agency discusses the harmful effects of nicotine on brain development at that age.

The various tantalizing aromas that are multiplying are helping to attract more and more young consumers according to the organization, which adds that the use of electronic cigarettes increases the chances of smoking later.

“Governments should adopt adequate measures to protect their populations from the danger of these electronic nicotine inhalers, and prevent children, adolescents and other vulnerable groups from using them,” insists Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"These products are diverse and evolve rapidly"

This is the reason why the WHO wants better regulation of the consumption of these products at the national level.

However, the task promises to be delicate.

“These products are diverse and evolve rapidly.

This is one of the ways in which manufacturers subvert and undermine control measures, ”explains Dr Rüdiger Krech, director for health promotion at the WHO.

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The organization calls on governments to do what is necessary to divert potential consumers from electronic cigarettes so as not to trivialize the act of smoking in society. The UN body recognizes that the proportion of smokers has fallen in many countries, but observes that the total number of consumers remains "stubbornly high" due to the increase in the world population. Finally, the agency calls for vigilance: regulating electronic cigarettes does not mean giving up the fight against “classic” smoking.