Electronic cigarettes and similar devices are dangerous to health and must be regulated to curb the tobacco industry’s “criminal” tactics to get young people hooked on nicotine, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday. “Nicotine is highly addictive. Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are harmful, and must be better regulated,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The UN health agency’s eighth tobacco report said 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”. 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.
