On this World No Tobacco Day 2026, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa is joining the global community to reaffirm a simple yet urgent truth: nicotine addiction is not accidental; it is engineered. Across the African Region, rapid changes in the tobacco and nicotine markets are threatening decades of public health progress and placing children and young people at unprecedented risk.
The global theme for this year: “Unmasking the appeal – countering nicotine and tobacco addiction” exposes the deliberate strategies of the tobacco and nicotine industry to design, package and promote products that hook users early and keep them dependent for life. It also calls on governments to respond with decisive, evidence‑based action.
Over the past two decades, the African Region has made commendable progress in tobacco control. Many countries have ratified and implemented key provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, enacted comprehensive tobacco control legislation, strengthened smoke‑free environments, introduced large pictorial health warnings, increased tobacco taxes and expanded access to cessation support. Tobacco use prevalence in the Region remains among the lowest globally, and several countries are on track to meet global tobacco reduction targets. These achievements show clearly that effective policies and determined government leadership can protect public health, save lives and reduce health inequities. However, these hard‑won gains are under increasing threat from new and emerging tobacco and nicotine products, aggressive and sophisticated industry marketing, and the persistent interference of the tobacco and nicotine industry in public health policymaking.
The objective of the industry remains unchanged: to recruit new users, replace those lost to quitting or death and secure lifelong profits. What has changed is the way addiction is engineered. Today’s tobacco and nicotine products are deliberately designed to encourage use, increase dependence and perpetuate addiction, particularly among young people. By adding sugars, flavours, menthol, acids and artificial cooling agents, manufacturers mask the harshness of nicotine, making products easier to inhale and more appealing to first‑time users. Many products allow users to adjust the strength or delivery of the nicotine, enabling them to inhale more nicotine and other harmful substances without realizing it. These design features are not accidental. They are the result of deliberate strategies informed by research into human behaviour and the way the brain responds to nicotine. These strategies are designed to accelerate the path from experimentation to dependence.
Young people are particularly vulnerable to these tactics. The adolescent brain is still developing and adapts rapidly to nicotine. Even low levels of exposure can lead to strong dependence, impair brain development and increase the risk of long‑term or lifelong addiction. There is consistent evidence that most tobacco and nicotine use begins during adolescence, with nearly nine in ten adults who smoke daily having tried smoking before the age of 18 years. This biological and social vulnerability makes children and adolescents prime targets for the tobacco and nicotine industry.
Through flavoured products, sleek and colourful designs, digital and social media marketing, influencer promotion and misleading claims that downplay the harms, the industry normalizes nicotine use and portrays it as fashionable, harmless or even beneficial. In Africa, where over 60 per cent of the population is under the age of 25, failing to act decisively would have profound and long‑lasting consequences.
There is no such thing as safe tobacco use or a safe level of non‑therapeutic nicotine exposure. All tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, waterpipe tobacco, heated tobacco products, e‑cigarettes, nicotine pouches and other emerging nicotine-like products, are harmful and addictive. Even smoking one cigarette a day significantly increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Using more than one type of product does not reduce harm; it increases exposure to toxic substances, deepens dependence and makes quitting more difficult. Nicotine does not relieve stress, it creates it. What many users perceive as relaxation is simply the temporary easing of withdrawal symptoms, which reinforces addiction and can negatively impact mental well-being over time. Children face additional dangers, as even small amounts of nicotine can cause serious poisoning. Accidental exposure to nicotine pouches and liquids is also an emerging and preventable risk.
While the harms are clear, the benefits of quitting are equally compelling. Quitting works, and the health benefits are seen almost immediately and continue throughout life. Within minutes of stopping using nicotine use, heart rate and blood pressure begin to drop. Within weeks, circulation and lung function improve. Within a year, the excess risk of heart disease is halved, and over time, the risk of many tobacco‑related illnesses falls dramatically. However, the most effective, equitable and cost‑efficient approach is prevention. Nicotine addiction removes choice, and what starts as curiosity or social pressure can quickly lead to dependence. Preventing children and adolescents from taking up smoking stops addiction before it starts and protects their developing brains from harm.
Governments have the responsibility and the tools to protect current and future generations. The most effective way to prevent nicotine addiction is to implement comprehensive tobacco control policies fully and without delay. Member States in the African Region are urged to strengthen and enforce regulations that reduce the addictiveness, attractiveness and accessibility of tobacco and nicotine products, particularly for children and young people. This includes banning flavours and additives such as menthol, sweeteners, acids and synthetic coolants, which increase the appeal of products and makes them easier to inhale; closing regulatory loopholes that allow the tobacco and nicotine industry to evade existing laws by introducing nicotine-like products and other new substances; and strengthening the regulation of product design, packaging and marketing to prevent the targeting and deception of young people. As part of a comprehensive strategy, countries should also consider reducing nicotine content to non‑addictive levels, in line with WHO scientific recommendations, to reduce the addictiveness of products and protect young people.
Central to all these efforts is the need to safeguard public health policy from tobacco industry interference. The tobacco and nicotine industry continues to lobby, take legal action, fund front groups and run misleading corporate social responsibility campaigns. It spreads misinformation and often presents itself as a partner in public health or as a champion of “harm reduction”. These tactics are designed to delay, weaken or derail effective regulation.
We must be clear: the industry that engineered the addiction and profited from it for decades cannot be permitted to influence public health solutions. Policies must be grounded in independent, transparent and evidence‑based science, in full conformity with Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which requires governments to protect health policy from tobacco industry interference.
Protecting Africa’s children and young people from engineered nicotine addiction is not optional; it is a moral, social and public health imperative. Preventing addiction is far easier, more effective and more equitable than treating it once it has taken hold, and it is essential to sustaining the Region’s development gains.
On this World No Tobacco Day 2026, the World Health Organization is calling on Member States, parliamentarians, regulators, civil society, educators, parents and young people across the African Region to unite against the deceptive tactics of the tobacco and nicotine industry. Together, we must safeguard the health of the next generation, preserve the hard‑won progress in tobacco control, and secure a future in which Africa’s children and young people can grow up, learn and thrive free from addiction. The time to act is now.