Young, adolescent people use e-cigarettes at higher rates than adults in many countries and globally, an estimated 37 million children aged 13–15 years use tobacco, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the Global Youth Tobacco Surveys which reveal alarming tobacco use rates in different parts of the world.
In Oman, more than 15 per cent of male adults and 1.5 per cent of females aged 15 years and more were regular smoker of tobacco, according to the Oman Family Health Survey (OFHS).
Data shows that tobacco use among adults to be relatively low to the tune of 4.6 per cent compared to many developing countries where the consumption is up to 35 per cent among boys and 30 per cent among girls, effective measures against such addiction need to be initiated and implemented.
Despite significant progress in reducing tobacco use, the emergence of e-cigarettes and other new tobacco and nicotine products present a grave threat to youth and tobacco control. Studies demonstrate that e-cigarette use increases conventional cigarette use, particularly among non-smoking youth, by nearly three times.
What makes these products attractive to the youth is that they are designing them and utilising marketing strategies that appeal directly to children and the use of child-friendly flavours like cotton candy and bubblegum is seemed to be an attempt to get young people addicted to these harmful products.
"The tobacco industry is trying to sell the same nicotine to our children in different packaging and they are actively targeting schools, children, and young people with new products that are essentially a candy-flavoured trap and how can they talk about harm reduction when they are marketing these dangerous, highly-addictive products to children?”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
"Such deceptive tactics warrant the urgent need for strong regulations to protect young people from a lifetime of harmful dependence," he adds.
The WHO and STOP, a global tobacco industry watchdog, have launched a report titled “Hooking the next generation,” which highlighted how the tobacco and nicotine industry designs products, implements marketing campaigns and works to shape policy environments to help them addicted to the world's youth, last month.
In light of these, WHO further urges governments to protect young people from getting attracted to the vicious circle of tobacco, e-cigarettes and other nicotine products by banning or tightly regulating these products.
“We must continue to protect our young people from the devastating consequences of tobacco and nicotine use,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
"The promotional tactics that target more children and young people to use its old and new products. I am noticing regularly that the new products are violating the laws of tobacco advertising and the sponsorship and promotion ban in the Region. We must stop these industry tactics and protect the children and young people of the Region.”
Some of the measures recommended by the WHO include creating 100 per cent smoke-free indoor public places, banning flavoured e-cigarettes, bans on marketing, advertising, and promotion, higher taxes, increasing public awareness of the deceptive tactics used by the industry, and supporting youth-led education and awareness initiatives.
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