The e-cigarette and other similar products are dangerous to health and must be regulated in order to stifle in their infancy the tactics of the tobacco industry to attract customers, the World Health Organization warned today.
“Nicotine is highly addictive and electronic nicotine inhalers are dangerous and need to be better regulated,” said Tantros Adanom Gebregesous, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which released a new report on the fight against smoking today. together with Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The report notes that the makers of these products, whose fan base continues to grow, often target children and teens with thousands of tempting scents – the report lists 16,000 different ones – and reassuring statements.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York who has been fighting against smoking for years, has denounced the tactics of the tobacco industry.
“As cigarette sales decline, tobacco companies have aggressively promoted new products such as e-cigarettes or carbonated tobacco products and are pushing governments to limit their regulation,” he said.
“Their purpose is simple, to make a new generation addicted to nicotine, and we can not let them do that.”
Consequently, the head of the WHO “Where these products are banned,” governments should take appropriate measures to protect their populations from the dangers of these electronic nicotine inhalers and to prevent children, adolescents and other vulnerable groups from using them. ” .
The use of these e-cigarettes by those under the age of 20 is of particular concern to the UN service, mainly due to the negative impact of nicotine on brain development in this age group and the risk that certain components may present.
The service also estimates that children who use these devices may be more likely to smoke later.
However, the regulation of this sector is not simple because “these products are very different and grow rapidly”, underlines Dr. Rudiger Kerch, Director of Health Promotion at the WHO, and added: ” It's one of the ways in which manufacturers overturn and undermine control measures. “
The WHO Advises governments to do whatever it takes to stop non-smokers from using e-cigarettes and other e-cigars for fear of “re-normalizing” smoking in society.
According to the report, 32 countries are banning the sale of these electronic nicotine inhalers and 79 have adopted at least one measure to restrict their use, such as banning advertising.
However, the WHO emphasizes, 84 countries have no safeguards against the spread of this type of product.
The agency also emphasizes that efforts to regulate them should not divert attention from the fight against smoking.
Although the percentage of smokers has decreased in many countries, the increase in population has resulted in the total number of smokers remaining “persistently high”, the report underlines.
Smoking kills 8 million people a year, one million of whom are passive smokers.
