- WHO says vapes risk “renormalising smoking behaviour,” particularly among youth
- The 2025 report warns newer nicotine products may reverse public health gains
- Vapes are described as “addictive and harmful,” and linked to increased cigarette uptake
- Harm reduction advocates accuse WHO and BMJ of uncritical, misleading framing
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the use of vapes risks “renormalising smoking behaviour,” especially among young people, in a sweeping new report on global tobacco control.
Harm reduction experts have criticised the agency’s framing, calling it misleading, unscientific and potentially counterproductive to public health.
The WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2025 states: “The use of ENDS risks renormalising smoking behaviour, especially among younger populations.”
It argues that the growing popularity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), such as vapes, may undermine the successes of smoke-free environment policies that have helped reduce smoking rates in recent decades.
‘No proven net benefit’
The report claims: “E-cigarettes are often promoted as a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes; however, to date, the commercialisation of e-cigarettes has not been proven to have had a net benefit for public health.”
The WHO says vapes, which heat a liquid to produce an inhalable aerosol, “are addictive and harmful” and increase “conventional cigarette uptake, particularly among non-smoking youth.”
The report also expresses concern that vapes are marketed using tactics that target children and adolescents, including the use of flavours and social media campaigns.
WHO urges countries to ban or regulate vapes
The agency encourages countries to either ban the sale of vapes or regulate them heavily, including through flavour bans, health warnings, and age restrictions.
However, harm reduction advocates have sharply criticised the WHO’s position.
Clive Bates, former director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and a long-time proponent of tobacco harm reduction, responded: “An alternative to cigarettes that displaces smoking risks, renormalising smoking? Hmmm… how does that work? Vapes have normalised quitting smoking by creating an alternative.”
Bates also criticised the British Medical Journal (BMJ)’s coverage of the report. While the WHO’s 315-page formal report focuses primarily on the implementation of tobacco health warnings, the BMJ’s article only highlighted the agency’s claims about vaping, including off-script remarks made at a recent conference in Dublin.
Bates said: “Though the main theme of the report is on the uptake of health warnings, the BMJ chose to emphasise comments on vaping.
“The remarks reported by BMJ do not appear in the report or press release, but appear to have been ranted from the podium by unaccountable WHO officials at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin.”
He added: “The news reporter – or rather, stenographer – at BMJ applies zero critical appraisal to WHO’s statements and seeks no alternative perspective.”
ENDS could ‘reverse’ public health gains
The WHO report calls on governments to protect public health by restricting access to ENDS, especially among young people, and warns that without action, “newer nicotine and tobacco products” could reverse progress made over the past two decades.
But critics argue that such a stance fails to adequately consider the role of safer nicotine alternatives in helping smokers quit, and may ultimately keep more people smoking.
WHO under fire from health advocates
The report comes after the WHO’s top boss came under fire in May for declaring that “tobacco kills no matter how it is packaged.”
Health experts and harm reduction advocates said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s comment ignored decades of research showing that not all tobacco and nicotine products carry the same risks.
The statement was made in a pre-recorded presentation to a webinar celebrating “World No Tobacco Day”.
In March, the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) – a landmark treaty intended to reduce the global toll of smoking – marked its 20th anniversary in February.
A leading global health expert warned that far from stamping out the scourge of smoking, the framework is “failing those who need it most,”
Dr Delon Human, an author, family physician and expert in tobacco harm reduction, said: “..after two decades of costly FCTC influence and activities, the reality is grim: smoking still kills 8.5 million people annually, and more than 1.2 billion people continue to use tobacco.
“While some countries have made progress, many low and middle income regions have seen minimal improvement.”
