The tobacco industry has a new face. The cigarette packet you grew up fearing has been quietly replaced by a sleek, candy-coloured device that sounds more like a tech product than a health hazard. Nicotine addiction in young people, however, remains the industry’s most deliberate outcome. The mission has not changed. Only the packaging has.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills more than seven million people globally each year. Around 1.6 million of those are non-smokers harmed by second-hand smoke. Meanwhile, the industry continues to recruit the next generation. The only safe choice, for young people especially, is never to start.

A New Product Built to Sustain Nicotine Addiction in Young People

The modern tobacco industry now markets a wide range of tobacco and nicotine products. These include heated tobacco devices, e-cigarettes, flavoured nicotine pouches and products branded as “aromatic nose inhalers.” The designs change. The outcome does not.

Every one of these products shares the same central purpose: to create nicotine addiction in young people. The WHO calls this deliberate approach an “engineered architecture of addiction.” These products exploit reward pathways in the brain. Moreover, they build habits that prove extraordinarily difficult to break. There is no safe version of any of them.

The flavours are not accidental. The bright packaging is not coincidental. Furthermore, the unboxing videos and lifestyle clips flooding social media feeds are carefully planned. Manufacturers design tobacco and nicotine products to appear modern, harmless and desirable, particularly to children who are still forming their understanding of risk.

Europe Is Moving in the Wrong Direction on Tobacco and Nicotine Products

The WHO European Region spans 53 member states and currently leads the world in tobacco use. It also leads globally in growing e-cigarette use among young people. Both records represent a public health failure of significant scale.

In 2024 alone, 173 million adults and four million adolescents aged 13 to 15 across the region used tobacco products. Additionally, 31.4 million adults and 4.2 million adolescents used e-cigarettes. Since 2019, adolescent e-cigarette use has risen in 22 of 25 EU countries reviewed. In every one of those countries, girls report higher use than boys.

Nicotine addiction in young people is not a future concern. It is a present reality. Millions of adolescents are already carrying dependency into adulthood, facing lasting consequences for their health and their ability to make free choices about their own lives.

Hidden in Plain Sight: How the Industry Reaches Young People

Today’s tobacco and nicotine marketing works largely because young people do not recognise it as marketing at all. Traditional magazine adverts have given way to something far more effective: influencers whom young audiences genuinely trust.

These influencers promote tobacco and nicotine products as personal lifestyle choices rather than paid endorsements. As a result, young followers absorb the message without the scepticism they might apply to obvious advertising. Viral content powered by trust reaches far deeper than any billboard campaign ever could.

Beyond social media, products now mimic sweets and toys in their design. A child who would never pick up a cigarette may reach for a flavoured device that looks like a colourful pen. Consequently, many take their first step toward nicotine addiction in young people without recognising the risk at all. This is a deliberate strategy, and the evidence shows it is working.

Prevention Remains the Most Powerful Tool Against Nicotine Addiction

A recent WHO Europe report, marking the 20th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), confirms that effective prevention tools already exist. The challenge is that governments are not applying them consistently or quickly enough.

The FCTC entered into force 21 years ago. Since then, more than 120 million fewer people use tobacco worldwide. Nevertheless, regulatory loopholes and slow responses to new tobacco and nicotine products continue to undermine that progress. The industry moves fast. Policy, too often, does not.

Education plays a vital role alongside regulation. Young people who understand how the industry engineers nicotine addiction are far better equipped to reject tobacco and nicotine products entirely. Therefore, the goal is not managed use or switching to a supposedly safer alternative. The goal is prevention, from the very first moment of exposure.

The Next Generation Deserves a Future Free From Nicotine Addiction

For decades, the tobacco industry has reframed addiction as personal choice. It repackages dependency as lifestyle. Furthermore, it finds new routes to young people each time regulators close an old one.

Reversing this requires updated EU directives covering tobacco products, advertising and taxation. Specifically, policymakers should ban the flavours, sleek designs and digital marketing tactics that target young audiences. Strong price measures also matter, not to manage existing use, but to prevent young people from starting in the first place. Research confirms that higher prices reduce first-time uptake most effectively among adolescents, who are most sensitive to cost.

Tackling nicotine addiction in young people demands a full commitment to a generation that grows up free from dependency. Not a cleaner version of the same problem. A genuine, lasting alternative.

No tobacco. No nicotine. No dependency. That is the standard worth fighting for.

Source: healthpolicy-watch