Tobacco industry “fighting back” with new nicotine products, WHO warns, with more than 100 million people now vaping

One in five adults are still consuming tobacco and more than 100 million people are vaping as the industry targets young people to offset falling numbers of smokers, the World Health Organization has said. WHO’s latest report on global tobacco consumption1 analysed data from 195 countries and territories and quantified the world’s e-cigarette use for the first time. It found the number of tobacco users fell from 1.38 billion in the year 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024, with women quitting in greater numbers than men. Globally there are now 13% fewer tobacco users than at the turn of the century and when accounting for population growth there was a 27% drop in prevalence. Senior WHO officials praised progress in cutting smoking numbers, particularly in South East Asia, which accounted for more than half of the global fall. In 2000, 1 in 3 …