As use of tobacco products drops 100M People Now Vape

The World Health Organization is raising new alarms over the global rise of e-cigarette use, warning that more than 100 million people now vape, including at least 15 million teenagers. Young people, the agency reports, are becoming addicted to nicotine at far higher rates than adults, with children nine times more likely to start vaping, according to the BBC. This marks the WHO’s first global estimate of e-cigarette use, Reuters notes.

While often marketed as a safer alternative to smoking, e-cigarettes are driving what WHO expert Dr. Etienne Krug calls a “new wave” of nicotine addiction, potentially reversing decades of progress in reducing tobacco use. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus added that the tobacco industry is “aggressively targeting” young people with new nicotine products as traditional smoking declines worldwide, a trend partly credited to government anti-smoking campaigns, the BBC reports. Still, the organization estimates that 86 million adults—primarily in wealthier nations—now use e-cigarettes.

The actual numbers could be higher, as many countries do not track vaping. By early 2024, 62 nations had no e-cigarette regulations, and 74 had no minimum age for purchase. Global tobacco use, meanwhile, has declined from 1.38 billion users in 2000 to around 1.2 billion this year. The largest drop has been among women, whose tobacco use has nearly halved in the past 15 years. Despite the decline, roughly one in five adults still smoke, making tobacco a leading contributor to disease worldwide.

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