The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the tobacco industry is spreading misinformation and deliberately recruiting children when marketing e-cigarettes, reports dpa.

The industry “funds and promotes false evidence to argue that these products reduce harm,” said the UN agency while calling for stricter regulations on the products.
“Kids are being recruited and trapped at an early age to use e-cigarettes and may get hooked to nicotine,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO wants to ban flavours, reduce the nicotine content and tax the products higher in order to make e-cigarettes less attractive to youths, reports dpa. According to the WHO, children ages 13-15 are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in all WHO regions. For example, in Canada, the rates of e-cigarette use among teens ages 16 to 19 doubled between 2017-2022. In England, the number of young users has tripled in the past three years.
While tobacco companies market e-cigarettes as nicotine products that can reduce health risks compared to conventional cigarettes, the WHO says that the use of electric nicotine vaporizers also produces toxic substances that can cause cancer and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, reports dpa.