WHO has stated that tobacco use is the cause of many dangerous diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and many other health problems. Each year, more than 8 million deaths worldwide are linked to tobacco, including around 1.6 million deaths caused by diseases related to passive smoking.
No nicotine-containing product is safe for health, including cigarettes, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, smokeless tobacco and nicotine pouches. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and is especially dangerous to adolescent brain development. Exposure to nicotine during this stage can cause serious short-term and long-term consequences such as cognitive disorders, reduced learning ability, emotional disorders, and mental health problems.
Alarmingly, young people are becoming deliberate targets of tobacco corporations around the world. Attractive flavours, eye-catching packaging and misleading marketing methods are being used to make addictive and harmful products appealing. Many tobacco companies are using the label of “innovation” to diversify their approaches to different groups of users. These tactics include promoting new nicotine products together with marketing and product display strategies that make products more visible and more addictive to consumers.
The consequence is a vicious cycle that continuously creates new users, threatening to reverse the progress countries have achieved over many years in tobacco control. This situation continues as tobacco corporations around the world lobby to delay tobacco control measures.
Research compiled by the global tobacco industry watchdog STOP shows that the tobacco industry is targeting adolescents to create a new generation addicted to nicotine. This addictive ecosystem includes cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and nicotine pouches, using strategies such as “candy-isation” of products, turning products into items resembling sweets; “gamification”, linking products with games popular among young people; and the use of social media and influencers to attract youth.
On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2026, WHO selected the theme “Unmasking the appeal: countering nicotine and tobacco addiction” to raise awareness about the increasingly sophisticated strategies used by global tobacco corporations to increase addictiveness while still creating the impression of “advanced technology”.
On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2026, WHO selected the theme “Unmasking the appeal: countering nicotine and tobacco addiction” to raise awareness about the increasingly sophisticated strategies used by global tobacco corporations to increase addictiveness while still creating the impression of “advanced technology”.
World No Tobacco Day this year takes communication efforts and promote stronger policy actions to protect adolescents. WHO has called on governments of countries, partners, and social organisations to strengthen management, narrow policy gaps, and protect future generations from the harms of tobacco and nicotine products.
In Viet Nam, a report reviewing 13 years of implementation of the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms shows that the rate of conventional cigarette smoking among adult men has declined, while exposure to second-hand smoke has also decreased in households, public places and workplaces. However, these achievements are at risk of being undermined by the rapid increase in the use of new tobacco products, mainly electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products, among young people, as well as the increasingly younger age of nicotine addiction.
Viet Nam is among the 15 countries with the highest rates of smoking among adult men in the world and ranks third in the ASEAN region.
According to estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study cited by WHO, smoking kills 103,000 people each year in Viet Nam. In 2024, the estimated medical and economic costs caused by tobacco reached 108.7 trillion VND, equivalent to 1.14% of GDP, while environmental pollution costs caused by tobacco, including deforestation, plastic waste and marine pollution, were estimated at 99 trillion VND per year, equivalent to 1.04% of GDP.
In total, tobacco “burns away” more than 2% of GDP, creating a double burden on healthcare and the environment. Tobacco use also negatively affects poor households and increases social inequality.
Master Phan Thi Hai, Deputy Director of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund under the Ministry of Health, said that based on international experience, domestic practice and WHO recommendations, some tobacco harm prevention policies should be focused on in 2026 are: implementing a completely smoke-free environment policy in public places; a policy of printing health warnings on tobacco packaging; prohibiting the display of tobacco products at points of sale; and including regulations banning e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products in the amended Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harm.
The Ministry of Health is currently revising and submitting the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms to the Government and National Assembly to address existing loopholes and make the law more suitable to current realities. The ministry’s draft amendments specifically propose two policies: banning the production, trading, storage, transit, transportation, advertising, promotion, sponsorship, harbouring and use of electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other new tobacco products; and prohibiting wholesale and retail tobacco establishments from displaying tobacco products in any form.
With these proposals, it is hoped that Viet Nam will effectively address and reduce the consequences arising from the tobacco trade.
