By Bisola Adeyemo
World Health Organization (WHO) has said governments should adopt appropriate policies to protect their populations from the harms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) as well as preventing their children, adolescents and other vulnerable groups from smoking tobacco.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, gave this warning on Tuesday, adding that Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are harmful, and must be better regulated.
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2021, which focused on new and emerging products, was published on Tuesday.
It said ENDS should be tightly regulated for maximum public health protection.
According to the UN health agency’s eighth tobacco report, ENDS manufacturers often target youths with thousands of tantalising flavours — the document listed 16,000 — and reassuring statements.
Doctor Vinayak Prasad, who heads the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said targeting children “with toxic and poisonous products is a criminal action”.
“It’s the most criminal act. And it’s a human rights violation,” he told a press conference.
“They run the risk of being addicted for the rest of their lives.”
The report said there were still more than a billion smokers around the world.
Tobacco is responsible for the deaths of eight million people a year, including one million from second-hand smoke, it stressed.