At face value, it appears to align with modern harm-reduction discourse, positioning vaping as a cleaner, safer, technologically advanced alternative to smoking. But beneath the branding, public health experts describe something far more insidious, a manufactured campaign designed to dilute the global anti-tobacco message, normalize nicotine consumption, and expand a new generation of addiction.
Public health advocate Robert Egbe of the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) described it in uncompromising terms.
According to him, “World Vape Day is a fabrication. It is designed to distract, confuse, and dilute the impact of World No Tobacco Day while normalising vaping and other dangerous nicotine products.”
A parallel campaign with no global legitimacy
Unlike World No Tobacco Day, which was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to expose the health, social, economic, and environmental consequences of tobacco use, “World Vape Day” carries no endorsement from the WHO, the United Nations, or any credible global public health institution.
Its existence is not institutional; it is promotional.
Egbe argued that this distinction is critical. According to him, the campaign does not emerge from public health necessity but from industry strategy.
“At its core, this is a marketing system attempting to sit beside a global health observance and weaken its influence,” he explained.
The result is a parallel information environment where nicotine products are reframed not as addictive substances, but as lifestyle alternatives.
Brazil’s regulatory warning: nearly two decades of rejection
The global debate around vaping safety has deep regulatory roots. In 2009, Brazil banned electronic smoking devices, including e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and other emerging nicotine delivery systems.
The country’s health regulator, ANVISA, established a strict evidentiary standard: tobacco and nicotine companies would only be considered for approval if they could demonstrate safety, reduced risk, or therapeutic benefit.
Nearly two decades later, no company has met those conditions.
Instead, regulatory assessments have consistently failed to verify claims that vaping products are safe substitutes for cigarettes. In effect, Brazil’s position has become a long-standing global reference point for precautionary regulation.
The global scale: a rapidly expanding nicotine generation
The nicotine landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. WHO estimates that over 100 million people now use vaping products globally, including approximately 15 million children and adolescents.
Even more concerning is the age distribution. Across 123 countries surveyed, at least 15 million teenagers aged 13 to 15 are already using e-cigarettes. WHO data further suggest that adolescents are, on average, nine times more likely than adults to vape.
Public health experts describe this as a structural shift in nicotine consumption patterns, from adult smoking cessation to youth initiation.
Egbe warns that this is not accidental.
“What is being built is a pipeline,” he says. “A system where young people are introduced to nicotine earlier through products designed to appear harmless.”
Nigeria’s exposure: 573 new nicotine products in circulation
Nigeria is increasingly part of this global expansion. A February report by CAPPA identified at least 573 new and emerging nicotine products circulating across retail and digital markets in the country.
These products are often flavoured, brightly packaged, and designed with aesthetics that closely mirror youth consumer culture. Digital marketing further amplifies exposure, especially among urban adolescents.
The regulatory gap is also visible on the ground. In 2024, investigations revealed that vendors in parts of Abuja were selling cigarettes and vaping products to schoolchildren, including those in uniform, despite existing laws prohibiting sales to minors.
The consequences are already measurable. More than 25,000 Nigerian children aged 10 to 14 are daily tobacco users, while nearly 30,000 Nigerians die annually from tobacco-related diseases.
These figures sit within a global burden of more than seven million tobacco-related deaths each year.
The contested “Sweden model” narrative
A key pillar of industry messaging is the “Quit Like Sweden” argument, which attributes Sweden’s declining smoking rates to the widespread use of snus and nicotine pouches.
However, Swedish public health authorities strongly dispute this interpretation.
The Swedish Cancer Society and the Swedish Public Health Agency both maintain that there is no evidence that snus is responsible for declining smoking rates. Instead, they attribute progress to decades of sustained tobacco control measures: higher tobacco taxes, advertising bans, age restrictions, smoke-free public spaces, strict availability controls, and accessible cessation support services.
The Public Health Agency also noted that Sweden’s decline in daily cigarette smoking has been ongoing since the 1980s, long before the rise of modern nicotine pouch marketing.
Egbe emphasises the implication.
“This is not a product story. It is a policy story,” he said, adding that “Where tobacco use declines, it is because regulation works.”
The hidden risk: addiction pathways and youth vulnerability
Beyond marketing claims, public health experts continue to raise concerns about vaping as a potential gateway to long-term nicotine dependence.
Evidence suggests that many young users who begin with e-cigarettes may later transition to combustible cigarettes, increasing health risks rather than reducing them.
Nicotine exposure during adolescence is particularly concerning due to its effects on brain development, especially in areas related to impulse control, learning, and attention.
WHO has repeatedly warned that nicotine is highly addictive and that tobacco and nicotine companies are deliberately designing products to be more appealing, easier to use, and harder to quit, especially for young people.
Global pushback: bans, restrictions, and legal action
Governments are responding with increasing urgency. At least 47 countries now ban the sale of vaping products entirely, while others have introduced stricter advertising, packaging, and distribution controls.
Parallel to regulatory action, legal pressure is mounting. Governments across several jurisdictions are pursuing lawsuits against tobacco companies to recover healthcare costs linked to smoking-related illnesses.
In Nigeria, the Federal Government and states, including Kano, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, and Gombe, are pursuing claims reportedly worth more than ₦10 trillion against British American Tobacco. The allegations include negligence, fraud, and misconduct related to marketing and product distribution practices.
A coordinated global counter-offensive
This year’s World No Tobacco Day aligns with the Make Big Tobacco Pay Alliance’s Global Week of Action Against Tobacco, a coordinated international campaign demanding accountability for the health, economic, and environmental harms linked to the tobacco industry.
The 2026 WNTD theme, “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction,” directly targets the evolving strategies of nicotine marketing.
Egbe said the timing is critical.
“Behind the flavours, packaging, influencers, and branding lies a single objective: recruitment and sustained addiction,” he explained.
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At the centre of the “World Vape Day” campaign is not public health, but narrative competition. It is an attempt to reposition nicotine consumption within a language of innovation and choice, while minimizing its addictive and long-term health consequences.
Egbe is clear in his final warning: “World Vape Day is not a public health initiative. It is a marketing scam designed to dilute World No Tobacco Day.”
As global health institutions intensify regulation and litigation expands across multiple jurisdictions, the contest is no longer only about tobacco control, but controlling how addiction is understood, and in that contest, public clarity remains the most powerful safeguard.
Esther Ososanya is an investigative journalist with Pinnacle Daily, reporting across health, business, environment, metro, Fct and crime. Known for her bold, empathetic storytelling, she uncovers hidden truths, challenges broken systems, and gives voice to overlooked Nigerians. Her work drives national conversations and demands accountability one powerful story at a time.