According to the British Daily Mail report on December 20, the World Health Organization reported that as of July 2023, 34 countries, including Mexico, Brazil and Norway, have banned the sale of e-cigarettes. A further 87 countries, mainly in the West, have imposed restrictions on its sales, such as banning the sale of certain flavors and online sales, with 79 countries imposing bans in 2020.
The United States, the world's largest e-cigarette market, is not close to a nationwide ban, but there are signs that states are shifting their stance - with five states banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. The World Health Organization recently called for a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes and urged more urgent action to limit their use. At the same time, the organization pointed out that currently 74 countries have not set relevant regulations.
Despite lax enforcement in areas where e-cigarettes are banned, the devices — and their various fruity flavors — are still available for purchase. According to statistics, nearly 11 million adults in the United States use e-cigarettes, accounting for about one-fifth of all adults. But among teenagers and young adults, use rates are as high as one in four in some age groups. Tobacco companies claim that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes and pose significantly lower health risks. But there is growing evidence that e-cigarettes produce substances that are harmful to the lungs and raise the risk of heart and lung problems.
"Children are attracted early and fall into the trap of using e-cigarettes and can become addicted to nicotine," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week.
He urged countries to take strict measures to prevent addiction and protect their citizens, especially children and young people. Dr Ruediger Krech, director of WHO's health promotion department, added: "E-cigarettes are targeted at children through social media and influencers, with at least 16,000 flavors available. Some products even use cartoon characters and designs Exquisite and very popular among the younger generation.”
Over the past three years, six countries have banned all sales of e-cigarettes - Cape Verde, Laos, Nicaragua, Norway, Turkey and Vanuatu. Turkey has banned the import of e-cigarettes as well as their sale and distribution, with its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously saying: "They are making a fortune by poisoning our people and we will not allow it." This happens."
In Norway, the country has banned all new nicotine products from entering the market, but is looking to ease that restriction. Its health department says e-cigarettes should be made available to people to help them quit smoking, but plans to reject fruit, vegetable and berry flavours.
During the same period, four countries chose other routes and lifted restrictions on e-cigarettes: Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain and the Palestinian territories. For Egypt, the country with the largest number of smokers in the Middle East, about one in five adults smokes. In order to help people quit smoking, the country lifted its ban on the sale of e-cigarettes in 2022.
In the United States, policymakers are under pressure to do more to regulate the sale of e-cigarettes and their accessibility to children. All e-cigarette companies should apply for a license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before selling their products in the United States. But enforcement of this regulation is spotty, and although the FDA has never approved flavored e-cigarettes, a wide variety of flavors are widely available on the market. The FDA said it would not authorize flavored e-cigarettes without "very specific evidence."
Five U.S. states have banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes - California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, as well as several cities. San Francisco has implemented the strictest ban, banning the sale of all e-cigarettes in 2019 in an attempt to suppress e-cigarette use within the city. Eight other states — Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Vermont — ban online sales of e-cigarettes. But many experts say more action is needed to stop teens from getting exposed to and becoming addicted to nicotine.
Current statistics show that nearly 8% of middle school and high school students use e-cigarettes, about 2.1 million children, mainly using flavored devices. One in four 12th graders admitted to using e-cigarettes at least once in the past year. That number has declined, from 2.55 million in 2022, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said was a "huge improvement," but experts assert more needs to be done.
