This is especially true among youth users: This is one of the main reasons why young people are experimenting with tobacco or nicotine products in the first place, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
Aromatized nicotine and tobacco products are in themselves addictive and toxic – often more than ordinary tobacco. Taste increases use, makes it harder to quit and has been linked to serious lung disease that maintains.
Despite decades of progress in tobacco control, aromatized products lure a new generation to addiction And contributes to eight million tobacco -related deaths every year.
Youth -oriented marketing
Nicotine products are often marketed directly towards young people through light and colorful packaging with sweet and fruity flavor descriptions.
Research shows that this type of advertising can trigger reward centers in youth brains and weaken the effect of health warnings.
Young people also report on a growing presence of aromatized nicotine product marketing across all social media platforms.
This marketing of flavors works across all kinds of nicotine and tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, bags and hookahs.
Who said taste like menthol, bubble rubber and cotton godis, “masks the hardness of the tobacco” and other nicotine products, making what are toxic products “for youth -friendly bait.”
Call action
Right in front of World No Tobacco Day, the UN Health Agency released a number of actual sheets and called on governments to ban all flavors in tobacco and nicotine products to protect young people from lifelong addiction and illness.
It cited articles 9 and 10 of the successful 2003 framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which obliges countries to regulate the content and unveiling of tobacco products, including aromas.
Who boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that “Without bold action, global tobacco epidemic will continue to be driven by addiction dressed with appealing taste.“
From December 2024, over 50 countries had adopted policies that regulated tobacco additives, with most targeted aromas by banning flavor marks or images and limiting the sale of aromatized products. Some also control flavor during production.
However, WHO noted that tobacco companies and retailers have found ways to bypass these rules, offering flavor accessories, including spray, maps, capsules and filter tips to be added to unmatched products.
Who still calls on all 184 FCTC parties (which make up 90 percent of the world’s population) to implement and enforce strong prohibitions and restrictions on aromatized products and related additives.
