The Department of Health has raised concerns that, despite decades of progress in tobacco control, emerging nicotine products threaten to undermine efforts to reduce smoking nationwide – particularly among young people.
“These products are marketed aggressively and often presented as safer alternatives, but they pose serious public health risks and are contributing to a new generation of nicotine addiction,” says deputy health minister Dr Joe Phaahla during a networking session hosted by the health department this week.
Research indicates that there are more than 2,600 types of e-cigarette liquids and over 213 e-cigarette websites operating in the country making it easier for users, especially young people to access these nicotine products and related information.
“These products are flooding the market, using sleek marketing tactics to lure young people. The advertisement of nicotine products is not accidental, it is a calculated effort to promote nicotine use,” Phaahla says.
By exploiting legal grey areas, the tobacco industry takes advantage of the fact that current legislation focuses primarily on traditional cigarettes and does not yet comprehensively regulate these newer products. The proposed Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill aims to plug the regulation gap by ensuring that these new products get the same treatment as tobacco products.
“We also recognise the use of the new tobacco products as a new gateway to nicotine addiction. Proposed legislation seeks to close these loopholes,” says Phaahla.
Trends in emerging product use
Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, public health specialist and director of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research presented concerning trends in tobacco use.
“South Africa has some of the highest smoking rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2010 and 2024, research shows a 200% increase in e-cigarette use by 2021 there were 920,000 users, a 45% rise in overall tobacco smoking, growing from 9.5 million to 14.9 million users and a 200% surge in waterpipe or hubbly (hookah pipe) smoking,” he says.
In 2010, e-cigarette use was relatively uncommon in South Africa. According to data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey, the prevalence of e-cigarette use among the general population was approximately 0.5%.
“E-cigarette use is increasingly common among young people who have never smoked traditional cigarettes. One in three young e-cigarette users has never previously smoked,” Ayo-Yusuf says.
Phaahla says that there is a need for urgent government action. But it’s been seven years since the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill was introduced and it has still not been signed into law.
“There are 42 countries that are already regulating nicotine products [like vapes] doing it and these are not big countries. The data is there [to support regulation]. The delay is politics and nothing else,” says Ayo-Yusuf.
Tobacco industry manipulation
Professor Catherine Egbe, Senior Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council notes the tobacco industry’s history of introducing new products under the disguise of harm reduction.
“We’ve seen snus, heated tobacco products, oral nicotine pouches, and now electronic cigarettes. These products are introduced and marketed as safer alternatives, yet they continue to contain the same harmful addictive ingredient, nicotine,” she says.
Egbe explains how the industry uses clever design and flavors to appeal to young consumers.
“The products are made sleek and discreet. A student might appear to be carrying a USB stick, when in fact it’s a vaping device. They’re deliberately designed to avoid detection,” she says.
She adds that flavors mimicking fruits, sweets, and desserts are engineered to attract young users.
“The tobacco industry manipulates both the taste and the nicotine content to ensure these products are addictive. Once you get a nicotine hit, you come back for more,” she says.
Egbe points out that the industry’s tactics are designed to hook young users.
“Nicotine is formulated in a way that once young people try it, they crave more,” she says.
Shenaaz El-Halabi, World Health Organization Country Representative to South Africa, says that while the tobacco industry profits, ordinary people suffer.
“Tobacco use burdens our healthcare system, devastates families, and robs communities of their potential. Every South African must understand just how harmful tobacco and nicotine truly are,” she says.
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