MADRID– Some 37 million adolescents from 13 to 15 years old consume tobacco, and in many countries the rate of electronic cigarette consumption among teenagers exceeds that of adults, according to the report ‘Hooking the next generation’, carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) and STOP, a global monitoring body for the tobacco industry.
The document, presented this Thursday at a press conference, highlights how the tobacco and nicotine industry designs products, carries out marketing campaigns and works to configure political environments that help them create addiction among young people around the world.
This report is published just ahead of World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, as WHO amplifies the voices of young people calling on governments to protect them from becoming targets of the industry. of tobacco and nicotine.
Thus, the document presents the situation by country. Specifically, in the WHO European Region, 20 percent of 15-year-olds surveyed reported having used electronic cigarettes in the last 30 days.
“Despite significant progress in reducing tobacco consumption, the emergence of electronic cigarettes and other new tobacco and nicotine products pose a serious threat to young people and tobacco control,” the WHO warns.
Studies show that the consumption of electronic cigarettes multiplies the consumption of conventional cigarettes almost threefold, especially among young non-smokers. “History repeats itself as the tobacco industry tries to sell our children the same nicotine in different packaging,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In total, 8 million deaths are recorded worldwide associated with tobacco.
“These industries are actively targeting schools, children and youth with new products that are essentially a candy-flavored trap. How can they talk about harm reduction when they are marketing these dangerous and highly addictive products to children?” , he asked himself.
These industries continue to market their products to young people with flavors such as candy and fruit. Research carried out in the United States revealed that more than 70 percent of young e-cigarette users would quit smoking if the products were only available in tobacco flavors.
“The industry is intentionally designing products and using marketing strategies that appeal directly to children,” said Dr. Ruediger Krech, WHO Director of Health Promotion.
“The use of flavors appealing to children, such as cotton candy and bubble gum, combined with elegant and colorful designs that resemble toys, is a blatant attempt to create addiction among young people to these harmful products,” he lamented. This expert has estimated the different flavors on the electronic cigarette market at 16,000.
According to the WHO, these “deceptive” tactics highlight the “urgent need” for “strict” regulations to protect young people from a life “of harmful dependence.”
For this reason, the United Nations health agency urges governments to protect young people from the use of tobacco, electronic cigarettes and other nicotine products, banning or “strictly” regulating them.
SMOKE-FREE PUBLIC PLACES
Among the WHO recommendations are the creation of 100 percent smoke-free indoor public places; the ban on flavored electronic cigarettes; the prohibition of marketing, advertising and promotion; the increase in taxes; increasing public awareness of the deceptive tactics used by the industry, and supporting youth-led education and awareness initiatives.
“Young addicts represent a lifetime of benefits for the industry,” said Jorge Alday, director of STOP at Vital Strategies. “That’s why the industry is aggressively lobbying to create an environment that makes it cheap, attractive and easy for young people to get hooked. If policymakers don’t act, current and future generations may face a new wave of harm, characterized by addiction and consumption of many tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes,” he warned.
Youth advocates around the world are fighting the influence and marketing of the tobacco and nicotine industry. They are denouncing these practices and advocating for their own tobacco-free future.
Youth organizations from around the world participated in the latest session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP10) to convey to politicians that future generations will remember them as “those who protected them or those who put them in danger.”
“Working together, governments, public health organizations, civil society and empowered youth can create a world in which the next generation is free from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine addiction,” concludes the WHO. .
Source: EUROPA PRESS
