More than 100 million people around the world are using e-cigarettes, according to “alarming” estimates from the World Health Organisation, with almost 15 million teenagers believed to vape.
In its report – the health body’s first ever tracking of the use of vapes and other electronic smoking devices – the WHO said that figure includes at least 86 million adults, mostly from high-income countries.
But the report said 14.7 million of the total believed to use e-cigarettes were reportedly children aged between 13 and 15 years old.
It added that vaping’s prevalence among teens globally was 7.2%. In contrast, while around 20.4 million adolescents reported smoking cigarettes, it had a prevalence of 5.1%.
The report’s authors added that, based on available data for 63 countries – including in the UK – rates of vaping for 13- to 15-year-olds are “on average nine times higher than the prevalence among adults”, adding that “adolescents are generally using the products at a higher rate than adults”.
They also said: “Given that no country with a recent school-based survey of this age group found current use of e-cigarettes at zero, it is reasonable to assume the WHO estimate is an undercount.
“This finding is not surprising considering that the industry is aggressively targeting children and young people, including through new digital channels that are underregulated.”
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Etienne Krug, director of the WHO’s Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention department, said in a statement that “e-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction”.
“They are marketed as harm reduction,” she added, “but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said that while millions are “stopping, or not taking up tobacco use… the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people”.
He called on governments to “act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies”.
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The UK introduced a ban on selling and supplying single-use vapes in June this year, designed to tackle waste and the impact of vapes on the environment.
While there is no further ban on vapes in the works, the government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is currently in the committee stage at the House of Lords, includes powers to potentially restrict the packaging, marketing and flavours of e-cigarettes.
