Geneva.- The World Health Organization (WHO) urged governments this Friday to urgently ban all flavors in tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, nicotine pouches, hookahs, and e-cigarettes, to protect young people from addiction and disease.
“Flavors like menthol, bubblegum, and cotton candy turn toxic products into bait for young people. Flavors not only make it harder to quit tobacco, but have also been linked to serious lung diseases,” stated the WHO on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day today.In a statement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that “flavorings are fueling a new wave of addiction and should be banned.”
At the same time, they are undermining decades of progress in tobacco control, which continues to kill eight million people worldwide each year.
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This conjunction of factors has increased the striking effect of nicotine pouches, heated tobacco, and disposable vapes.
More than fifty countries currently ban flavored tobacco; more than 40 ban the sale of electronic cigarettes; five ban disposables and seven ban flavored ones, while flavoring accessories remain unregulated, said the WHO.
