The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged nations to restrict flavors and chemicals, including menthol, in tobacco and nicotine products to safeguard children and young people from addiction.
WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Janabi made the plea in a statement released yesterday to mark World No Tobacco Day themed: “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction.”
Janabi said fast shifts in tobacco and nicotine markets were putting decades of public health progress across Africa at risk and exposing young people to unprecedented harm, The Guardian reports.
Nicotine addiction was “engineered, not accidental,” he claimed, a product of industry plans to get users addicted early and keep them addicted for life.
The subject, he said, exposes industry practices that combine sweets, menthol, acids and cooling chemicals to mask the unpleasant taste of nicotine and make products more enticing to first-time users.
He asked African Member States to improve rules that decreased the addictiveness, attractiveness and accessibility of tobacco and nicotine products, particularly among those under the age of 25.
“The call comes as Africa’s hard-won gains in tobacco control are facing new threats from emerging products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches and other nicotine-like substances,” said Janabi.
“Despite many countries ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and tackling tobacco use through taxes, smoke-free laws and pictorial warnings, aggressive marketing and regulatory loopholes are undermining progress,” he said.
He said young people are more vulnerable since the adolescent brain is fast to adapt to nicotine.
“Africa is the youngest continent, with over 60 per cent of its population under the age of 25, so inaction will have far-reaching and long-lasting implications.
“Preventing through comprehensive policy action is more effective and more equitable than treating addiction after it has taken hold,” he said.
The regional director claimed the tobacco industry’s goal had not changed: to attract new users, replace those lost through quitting or death and ensure everlasting revenues.
“What’s changed is the engineering of addiction,” he says.
“Today’s tobacco and nicotine products are deliberately engineered to encourage use and increase dependence,” said Janabi. “Product characteristics are informed by research on brain responses and human behaviour.
Manufacturers add sweeteners, flavors, menthol, acids and artificial cooling agents to hide the harshness of nicotine, making the items easier to inhale for first-time users.
Many products also provide the ability for users to change the strength or delivery of nicotine so that users can inhale more nicotine and other hazardous chemicals without knowing it.
“Those design strategies speed up the journey from experimentation to dependence, especially in adolescents whose brains are still developing,” he said.
“There is a potential for strong dependence, impaired brain development and increased risk of long term or lifelong addiction even at low levels of exposure,” said Janabi.
He pointed to evidence that over nine in 10 persons who smoke daily started doing so before age 18, making children and adolescents great targets for industry promotion.
He says the business utilizes tasty products, slick and colorful designs, digital and social media marketing, influencer promotions and bogus harm-reduction claims to normalise nicotine use and depict it as fashionable or harmless.
“There is no safe use of tobacco or safe level of non-therapeutic nicotine exposure,” he stated.
Janabi stressed that tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, waterpipes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches, are dangerous and addictive.
“Smoking just one cigarette a day carries a substantial risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. If you use more than one product, you increase your exposure to toxins and make it tougher to quit.
“Nicotine doesn’t relieve stress, it causes it.
“The temporary relaxation users experience is relief from withdrawal symptoms, which reinforces addiction and is detrimental to mental well-being in the long run,” he said.
“Children are at increased risk because just a small amount of nicotine can cause serious poisoning, and accidental exposure to nicotine pouches and liquids is an emerging but preventable risk,” stated regional director.
“But, he pointed out, the benefits of quitting were immediate.
“Within minutes, heart rate and blood pressure fall; within weeks, circulation and lung function increase; and within a year, excess risk of heart disease is cut in half.
“Governments need to close regulatory loopholes and strengthen product design and packaging rules to maintain progress and should consider reducing nicotine content to non-addictive levels in keeping with the WHO’s scientific recommendations.
“The core of all efforts is to protect health policy from tobacco industry interference as required by Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The industry that created addiction cannot be allowed to shape public health solutions,” stated he.
About the Author
