New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) While the number of tobacco users has dropped in recent years, the industry has devised new strategies driving a new wave of nicotine addiction with e-cigarettes, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

For the first time, the WHO in a new global report estimated global e-cigarette use — and the numbers are alarming: more than 100 million people worldwide are now vaping. At least 86 million users, mostly in high-income countries, are adults.

Notably, at least 15 million children (13-15 years) are already using e-cigarettes. In countries with data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape.

The WHO stated that this is not only undermining the progress achieved in controlling tobacco use, but also suggests that the tobacco epidemic is far from over.

“Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

“In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies,” he added.

The report showed that the number of tobacco users has dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024.

Since 2010, the number of people using tobacco has dropped by 120 million — a 27 per cent drop in relative terms. Yet, tobacco still hooks one in five adults worldwide, fuelling millions of preventable deaths every year.

The tobacco industry is introducing an incessant chain of new products and technologies for its aim to market tobacco addiction with not just cigarettes but also e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products, among others, which all harm people’s health, and more worryingly, the health of new generations, youth, and adolescents, the WHO said.

“E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction,” said Etienne Krug, WHO Director of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention Department.

“They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress,” Krug added.

Further, the report noted that women are leading the charge to quit tobacco — hitting the global reduction target for 2025 five years early.

Prevalence of tobacco use among women dropped from 11 per cent in 2010 to just 6.6 per cent in 2024, with the number of female tobacco users falling from 277 million in 2010 to 206 million in 2024.

By contrast, men are not expected to reach the goal until 2031 — more than four out of five tobacco users worldwide are men. While prevalence among men has fallen from 41.4 per cent in 2010 to 32.5 per cent in 2024, the pace of change is too slow.

–IANS

rvt/