Still unregulated, e-cigarette products are patently marketed to South African children and easily accessible. In shopping malls, colourful e-cigarette kiosks are in plain sight. Sleek designs and thousands of youth-friendly flavours increase product appeal and create a perception that these products are safe, fuelling youth e-cigarette uptake. 

Advertising, use of attractive flavours, influencers and point-of-sale marketing that appeals to youth are well-known tactics that have been employed by tobacco companies to attract a young market and find “replacement” smokers to maintain their market share and profits – creating another generation addicted to nicotine. While restrictions on these marketing avenues have been imposed on tobacco products, the introduction of e-cigarettes or vape products threatens to undo this progress, says Dr Sharon Nyatsanza, Deputy of the National Council against Smoking (NCAS). 

Placing children at the centre of conversations on better regulation of these novel products is critical for public health, argue the Protect our Next partners, a coalition of South Africa’s leading health organisations including NCAS.  

The African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) has joined South Africa’s public health organisations in calling for urgent regulation of e-cigarettes through the swift implementation of the long-awaited Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, saying the Bill could have an impact well beyond South Africa’s borders.  

Leonce Sessou, Executive Secretary of ATCA, says “Global evidence reveals that e-cigs may create a new generation of young nicotine addicts and undermine progress in reducing tobacco use nicotine addiction. South Africa’s response to this new public health threat will serve as an example of how other African countries could regulate e-cigarettes. Protecting Africa’s youth from nicotine addiction and possible subsequent lifelong tobacco use will promote the health, society and economy of Africa.” 

As the focus falls on the youth this Africa Youth Month, health organisations partnering in the #protectournext initiative are focusing on the challenge e-cigarettes or vape products are posing to protecting youth and reducing tobacco use. These products may create a new generation of young nicotine and tobacco users, undermining decades of progress in reducing tobacco use and nicotine addiction, say the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS), CANSA, the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of SA. “We are calling for government to take e-cigarettes seriously, act quickly, and regulate them appropriately by passing the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill in South Africa into law before a new generation is addicted to nicotine,” says Dr. Sharon Nyatsanza of NCAS.