From Lagos to Helsinki, governments race to curb vaping and tobacco marketing as health experts warn of a new generation hooked
By Bunmi Yekini
When Emeka first inhaled from a grape-flavoured vape pen at 16, he did not think he was stepping into addiction.
“It smelled like candy,” said the 21-year-old Nigerian, who asked that his full name be withheld. “They said it was just vapour. No smoke. No fire. Just fun.”
Five years later, he says he spends about 8,000 naira ($5) a week on disposable vapes and nicotine pouches, battles a chronic cough and is still trying to quit.
His story is echoed by teenagers and young adults from Nigeria to the United States, as health officials mark World No Tobacco Day with a warning: the tobacco and nicotine industry’s strategy of using sweet flavours, sleek designs and social media marketing is creating a new generation of users.
The campaign theme this year, “Unmasking the Appeal,” focuses on what public health advocates describe as decades-old tactics repackaged for the digital age.
A global epidemic, redesigned
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills more than 8 million people annually, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke.
While cigarette use has declined in many countries, newer products, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco devices and nicotine pouches, are gaining ground, particularly among adolescents.
In the United States, one in five high school students has tried vaping. In parts of Europe, nearly a third of 15-year-olds report using e-cigarettes. In many African countries, where enforcement is weaker, cheap imports and online sales are rising sharply, health advocates say.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said the industry’s objective remained unchanged.
“Let’s be clear. This industry’s main goal is profit, which they achieve by driving addiction,” he said in a statement marking the day. “Tobacco kills, no matter how it’s packaged.”
‘It didn’t smell like cigarettes’
Josephine Shapiro, now a sophomore at George Washington University, said she was 14 when she first tried a vape labelled “Blueberry Ice.”
“It didn’t smell. If anything, it smelled good,” she said. “I’ve always thought addiction was not something that a child could have, but I was 14, and I was looking to get my fix.”
She described slipping the slim device into her sock at school and vaping between classes. During an advanced placement exam, she said, she found herself unable to concentrate. “Halfway through the test, all I could think about was the vape in my backpack.”
Five years on, she is still attempting to quit.
Health experts say such experiences are not accidental but engineered.
Professor Ghazi Zaatari of the American University of Beirut, who chairs a WHO study group on tobacco product regulation, said flavours and additives are designed to mask nicotine’s harshness and make initiation easier.
“With over 2,000 flavours available, from mango smoothie to bubblegum, these products are tailored to look appealing, especially to younger audiences,” he said. “Tobacco products kill half of their users.”
Professor Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin of Yale University said even so-called “tobacco-flavoured” e-cigarettes contain chemical blends that alter taste and sensation.
“Most people wouldn’t voluntarily pick up a bitter, harsh-tasting cigarette,” she said. “Flavours give the false impression that it’s safer or just recreational.”
Some flavouring chemicals approved for food use have been linked to lung inflammation when inhaled, researchers say, although long-term data on many newer products remain limited.
Marketing in the shadows
As traditional advertising has been curbed in many countries, promotion has shifted online.
A 2024 study in The Lancet found that more than 70% of adolescents exposed to vaping content on TikTok or Instagram reported interest in trying a vape within a week.
Leighton Ayoyussef, director of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research at the University of Pretoria, described the approach as deliberate.
“If you get someone to start using nicotine before 18, they are much more likely to become lifelong users. That’s the business model,” he said.
In Nigeria, despite the 2015 National Tobacco Control Act, enforcement gaps have allowed colourful vaping products and flavoured cigarettes to remain widely accessible, including near schools, public health advocates say.
Studies indicate rising experimentation with e-cigarettes and shisha among secondary school students in major cities such as Lagos and Abuja.
Governments push back
Some countries have tightened restrictions.
Brazil’s health regulator, ANVISA, banned additives that impart flavour to tobacco products in 2012, though legal challenges delayed full enforcement. A ban on electronic smoking devices, first introduced in 2009, was reaffirmed in 2024 despite industry pressure, officials said.
Finland has adopted plain packaging laws that extend to nicotine pouches, part of a broader goal to eliminate tobacco and nicotine use. Smoking rates among 15- to 16-year-olds fell from nearly 20% in 2007 to 5% in 2023, according to government data.
Canada, after a surge in flavoured cigarillo sales among youth in the 2000s, introduced bans on flavoured additives and later implemented a nationwide menthol ban in 2019.
Public health officials say such measures, flavour bans, plain packaging, advertising restrictions and higher taxes, can significantly reduce youth uptake when consistently enforced.
The cost of addiction
For Emeka, the price has been financial and personal. He estimates he now spends more than 400,000 naira a year on nicotine products, more than many entry-level salaries in Nigeria.
He says he failed two semesters at university. “I was always tired, anxious, and couldn’t focus in class without a hit,” he said. “Sometimes I wish I had never touched it. But it’s hard. Especially when you see it everywhere, looking cool and harmless.”
Health experts warn that nicotine exposure during adolescence can disrupt brain development, impair attention and increase the risk of future substance abuse.
“These are not customers. They are victims,” Zaatari said. “We are witnessing the creation of a new generation of addicts.”
As governments debate tougher controls, the WHO says the tools to curb tobacco use already exist under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first public health treaty.
But with the industry rapidly innovating and marketing shifting to digital platforms, regulators face an uphill battle.
“The industry is adapting faster than our laws,” said a Nigerian health policy expert who asked not to be named. “If we fail to close the gaps now, we risk losing another generation.”