Over 100 million individuals, including at minimum 15 million youth, now employ e-cigarettes, driving a fresh wave of nicotine addiction, according to latest worldwide public health data.
Youth are, usually, nine times more likely than grown-ups to vape, according to existing international data.
Vaping devices are propelling a "recent wave" of nicotine addiction, stated a prominent health expert. "These devices are promoted as damage limitation but, truthfully, are hooking children on nicotine earlier and endanger compromising generations of progress."
"Numerous of people are ceasing, or avoiding tobacco usage due to tobacco regulation efforts by countries around the world," the official said.
"As an answer to this significant improvement, the tobacco sector is fighting back with new nicotine items, aggressively targeting adolescents. Governments must respond quicker and more vigorously in enacting established tobacco-control regulations," the representative added.
The e-cigarette figures are an approximation since some nations - 109 in all, and many in African and South-East Asia - lack statistics.
Per the study, as of this past February this period, at bare minimum 86 million e-cigarette users were mature individuals, mostly in high-income countries.
And at minimum 15 million adolescents aged 13 and 15 already use e-cigarettes, according to surveys from 123 nations.
Although many nations have attempted to implement e-cigarette rules to address underage vaping in the past few years, by the close of 2024, 62 nations even now had no measure in effect, and 74 nations had no age restriction at which e-cigarettes can be bought, says the medical body.
At the same time, tobacco use has been declining - from an estimated 1.38 billion users in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024.
Occurrence of tobacco usage among women fell the most - from 11% in 2010 to 6.6% in 2024.
For men, the decrease was from 41.4% in 2010 to 32.5% in 2024.
But one in five of mature individuals internationally even now uses tobacco.
Cigarette consumption is associated to numerous diseases, like cancer.
Professionals state vaping is far less dangerous than cigarettes, and can help you cease smoking. It is discouraged for those who don't smoke.
E-cigarettes eliminate burning tobacco and do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, a couple of the most harmful components in tobacco fumes. They have nicotine, which may be habit-forming.