Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

An individual is photographed vaping an electronic cigarette in Quezon City on May 31, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File

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Vape

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17597977869701749539016968EMBED_20240531-vape-smoking-MT-6.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">An individual is photographed vaping an electronic cigarette in Quezon City on May 31, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>GENEVA, Switzerland — E-cigarettes are fueling an &quot;alarming&quot; new wave of nicotine addiction, with millions of children now hooked on vaping, the World Health Organization warned Monday.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/10/4/youth-orgs-sign-manifesto-urging-stronger-tobacco-control-1307">Youth orgs sign manifesto urging stronger tobacco control</a></div><p>In countries that have the data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape, the WHO said.</p><p>The UN health agency said the industry was promoting vapes as supposedly less harmful products than cigarettes — but in fact was aggressively targeting young people and getting children addicted.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/01/21/21/barkada-culture-weaponized-the-shared-joy-and-despair-of-vaping-among-pinoy-youth">Barkada culture &#x27;weaponized&#x27;?: The shared joy and despair of vaping among Pinoy youth</a></div><p>More than 100 million people are vaping, according to the WHO&#x27;s first global estimate of e-cigarette use.</p><p>They include at least 86 million adults, mostly in high-income countries -- and at least 15 million children aged 13 to 15.</p><p>&quot;E-cigarettes are fueling a new wave of nicotine addiction,&quot; Etienne Krug, the WHO&#x27;s director of health determinants, promotion and prevention, said in a statement.</p><p>&quot;They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>GLOBAL FIGURES DOWN</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Globally, people are smoking less, with the number of tobacco users dropping from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024, while the world&#x27;s population has swelled.</p><p>However, one in five adults worldwide are still addicted to tobacco.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/6/10/doh-pushes-for-law-vs-bringing-of-vapes-cigarettes-in-schools-1505">DOH pushes for law vs bringing of vapes, cigarettes in schools</a></div><p>&quot;Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.</p><p>In response, the tobacco industry &quot;is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people&quot;, Tedros added.</p><p>Twelve countries are seeing tobacco use rising, the WHO said in its global report on trends in tobacco use prevalence.</p><p>&quot;These reversals... represent millions more people at risk of disease, disability and premature death,&quot; said WHO&#x27;s assistant director-general Jeremy Farrar.</p><p>Worldwide, smoking reduction is happening more quickly among women than men.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;SUBTLE&#x27; ONLINE ADS </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Farrar said tobacco use was killing more than seven million people every year, while second-hand smoke killed over one million.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2024/12/4/vaping-while-still-smoking-unlikely-to-help-quitters-study-0127">Vaping while still smoking unlikely to help quitters: study</a></div><p>Smoking damages &quot;every single part of the body&quot;, Farrar told reporters, adding that doing it indoors around children was &quot;irresponsible and unacceptable&quot;.</p><p>Around 40 million children aged 13 to 15 currently use tobacco, or one in 10, said Farrar.</p><p>In some countries, children were &quot;well under 10&quot; when they started using tobacco, said Alison Commar, the global report&#x27;s lead author.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2024/5/27/vaping-may-increase-risk-of-lung-cancer-1313">Vaping may increase risk of lung cancer</a></div><p>Commar warned children were being &quot;very heavily exposed&quot; to tobacco advertising online.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s really subtle. It&#x27;s very difficult to regulate,&quot; she said, with social media influencers using products while discussing something else.</p><p>She told reporters that e-cigarettes were &quot;very much a gateway for young people to move later into tobacco, or to maintain a nicotine addiction as they grow older&quot;.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FRYqwrUzXMo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eett7DmkoV8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>E-cigarettes are fueling an "alarming" new wave of nicotine addiction, with millions of children now hooked on vaping, the World Health Organization warned Monday.</p>

E-cigarettes are fueling an "alarming" new wave of nicotine addiction, with millions of children now hooked on vaping, the World Health Organization warned Monday.

Surging numbers of children using e-cigarettes: WHO

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Surging numbers of children using e-cigarettes: WHO

Robin Millard,

Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 07, 2025 08:45 AM PHT

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Agence France-Presse

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