WHO Says More Than 100 Million People In The World Are Addicted To Electric Cigarettes

Illustration of e-cigarette addiction. (Pexels/Olena Bohovyk)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that more than 100 million people in the world today are electric cigarette users. Not only adults, teenagers are also included in electric cigarette users.

Around 86 million adults are currently using e-cigarettes in their daily lives. For teenagers aged 13-15 years, there are about 15 million people who use electric cigarettes.

This figure is astonishing and worrying because it occurs in the midst of a global trend that shows a drastic decline in the number of conventional smokers. Globally, the number of smokers decreased from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024.

"Electrices trigger a new wave of nicotine addiction," said WHO's Director of the Department of Decent, Promotion and Health Prevention, Etienne Krug, quoted from the WHO's official website, on Thursday, October 9, 2025.

These electric cigarettes have also increasingly targeted children, which have an impact on early addiction. This risks triggering damage to the progress of reducing nicotine consumption and world health in the future.

The producer markets this product as an effort to reduce the dangers of smoking, but in reality it makes children addicted to nicotine from an early age and risks damaging the progress that has been achieved for decades, he added.

This WHO data also serves as a reminder that although the shape is different, the threat of nicotine remains the same and is even more dangerous now because it appears more attractive. To overcome this requires firm action from the government in every country.

"The government must act faster and decisively in implementing proven effective control policies," concluded WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.