WHO urges governments to ban all tobacco flavours, nicotine products

HQ Team

June 2, 2025: The World Health Organization has called on governments to ban all flavours in tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, pouches, hookahs and e-cigarettes, to protect youth from addiction and disease.

Menthol, bubble gum and cotton candy are masking the harshness of tobacco and nicotine products, turning toxic products into youth-friendly bait, according to a new WHO report.

These add-ons make it harder to quit and have been linked to serious lung diseases. Cigarettes, which still kill up to half of their users, also come in flavours or can have flavours added to them.

“Flavours are fuelling a new wave of addiction, and should be banned,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “They undermine decades of progress in tobacco control. Without bold action, the global tobacco epidemic, already killing around eight million people each year, will continue to be driven by addiction dressed up with appealing flavours.”

Click-on drops

Accessories like capsule filters and click-on drops are marketed to bypass regulations and hook new users, according to the Flavour Accessories in Tobacco Products Enhance Attractiveness and Appeal report.

Flavours in tobacco, nicotine and related products enhance attractiveness and appeal, contributing to experimentation, initiation and sustained tobacco and nicotine use.

More than 50 countries have banned flavoured tobacco, and about 40 countries ban e-cigarette sales — five specifically ban disposables, and seven ban e-cigarette flavours. Flavour accessories remain largely unregulated.

Flavours are a leading reason why young people try tobacco and nicotine products. Paired with flashy packaging and social media-driven marketing, they’ve increased the appeal of nicotine pouches, heated tobacco, and disposable vapes into addictive and harmful products, which aggressively target young people.

Rainbow-coloured vapes

“We are watching a generation get hooked on nicotine through gummy bear-flavoured pouches and rainbow-coloured vapes,” said Dr Rüdiger Krech, WHO Director of Health Promotion. “This isn’t innovation, it’s manipulation. And we must stop it.”

Nicotine contained in tobacco is highly addictive, and tobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 different types or subtypes of cancer, and many other debilitating health conditions, according to the WHO.

Tobacco can also be deadly for non-smokers. Second-hand smoke exposure has also been implicated in adverse health outcomes, causing 1.2 million deaths annually. Nearly half of all children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, and 65,000 children die each year due to illnesses related to second-hand smoke.

About 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.