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Some time back, during a school outreach in the Eastern Region, I asked a group of Junior High School students what they knew about vaping. “It smells like mango.” “It’s safer than smoking.” “You can buy them on Instagram.” These were their honest answers. One 14-year-old student admitted he had tried one with his cousin. “It helps you relax,” he said casually, not knowing it contained nicotine or that it could be addictive. To him, it was just a flavour, something fun.
That interaction stayed with me, and it replays in my mind as we commemorate World No Tobacco Day 2025. The year’s theme, ‘Unmasking the Appeal, Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products’, urges us to look deeper, beyond the trendy packaging and colourful flavours, to the quiet but aggressive war being waged on the lungs, heart, brains, and futures of our children and youth who are the future leaders of our country.
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2023, which includes detailed analysis on the evolution of e-cigarette products, marketing strategies, and their growing footprint within the global nicotine market, revealed that between 2018 and 2022, there was a 116% increase in the global sales of disposable electronic cigarettes.
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These products now constitute more than 22% of the global nicotine market, a significant surge driven largely by their appeal to youth through targeted marketing, flavour variety, and deceptive product design. The report also notes the existence of over 550,000 distinct e-cigarette products, many of which are stylised to mimic USB drives, pens, or cosmetic containers, making them both alluring and easily concealable, especially from guardians or regulatory eyes.
According to the most recent Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) conducted in Ghana in 2017, 4.9% of students use e-cigarettes while 6.5% continue to smoke traditional tobacco products. This nationally representative school-based survey, jointly supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, provides critical insights into youth tobacco use patterns in the country.
These findings highlight concerning trends in youth nicotine consumption, particularly the emerging popularity of electronic cigarettes. While traditional smoking among adolescents remains a public health issue, the growing experimentation with and use of e-cigarettes signals a shift in youth preferences and an expanding front in tobacco control challenges.
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Disturbingly, more girls than boys report using e-cigarettes. Online marketing, flavoured options like strawberry ice or vanilla swirl, and peer normalisation are fuelling experimentation. Meanwhile, public awareness of the health risks remains dangerously low, which the tobacco industry knows and is exploiting this gap.
The lack of awareness about the risks associated with these new tobacco and nicotine products is one of the biggest tools the industry uses to recruit lifelong customers. Many users, especially young people, don’t even know these devices contain highly addictive nicotine, nor do they realise the extent of harm associated with their use. It’s like a virus that keeps mutating to escape detection, while continuing to destroy from within.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), e-cigarettes contain toxic substances such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, and acrolein, all linked to cancer, lung damage, and cardiovascular disease reinforcing WHO’s assertion that these products have not delivered a net public health benefit, but instead, threaten to renormalise smoking and undo decades of progress.
We need a comprehensive regulatory framework: one that bans advertising, restricts flavourings that attract children, and implements age-verification systems across all sales platforms, both physical and digital.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control outlines urgent steps:
Ban all forms of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, particularly on digital platforms where youth are most exposed.
Strengthen enforcement to curb illicit sales and online distribution.
Safeguard policymaking from tobacco industry interference.
Constant public sensitisation programmes in schools, markets etc. on the harmful effects of these products.
Collaboration across all stakeholder levels and institutions.
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The tobacco industry's primary objective remains unchanged: profit maximisation, not public health protection or genuine harm reduction. This fundamental truth must guide our policy decisions and regulatory approaches. Our responsibility is to prioritise evidence-based public health measures that truly protect communities, especially vulnerable populations, from tobacco-related harm.
If we wait, we will lose another generation to nicotine addiction. But if we act now, if we invest in youth-focused awareness and hold the industry accountable, we can change the story.
So, this World No Tobacco Day, I am not just making a policy recommendation, I am making a plea. For our children, country, and future.
Tobacco and nicotine addiction remain the leading preventable causes of death worldwide, killing over 7 million people annually. But the new frontier is more deceptive, more technologically advanced, and more socially normalised.
Let’s not be fooled by sleek branding and flavour names. Let’s see through the vapour and commit to action that safeguards public health, especially the health of the younger generation and vulnerable populations.
By Rhoda Mingle, Communication Manager, Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana)