Today is World No Tobacco Day

She explained that this year’s worldwide emphasis was on the manipulation of young people by the tobacco industry.

Arāja noted that the marketing of the tobacco industry is increasingly aimed at young people as potential consumers of tobacco products. Studies show that smoking most often starts in adolescence, which causes severe nicotine addiction, and most often nicotine addiction continues into adulthood. Adult smoking habits usually develop as early as adolescence. Starting smoking at an early age increases health risks and is less likely to quit. This means that smoking prevention is especially important among young people, the SPKC representative emphasized.

She also pointed out that smoking is the leading cause of premature death in the European Union (EU). The report on the health profile of Latvia prepared by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that lifestyle-related risk factors are the cause of half of all deaths in Latvia.

According to a study conducted by the SPKC, in 2018, 26% of men and 10% of women in the 15-24 age group smoked daily. Research conducted so far shows that in Latvia as a whole, 58.5% of students aged 13 to 15 have ever tried tobacco products.

Arāja also explained that in recent years there has been a rapid increase in demand for alternative and “healthier” nicotine-containing products that can satisfy nicotine cravings without compromising the pleasure of tobacco smoking. As a result, new smoking devices are available that use a variety of technologies to allow the consumer to ingest nicotine without the presence of tobacco or to continue using tobacco but without inhaling the carcinogens produced by tobacco burning.

These smoking devices are advertised as safer alternatives to tobacco products, but recent studies show that they are not only harmful to users, causing eye and respiratory mucosal irritation, central nervous system disorders, pneumonia, vomiting, but can also explode. during use, indicate SPCC. Newly developed smoking devices are also jeopardizing the progress made globally in the decades-long fight against the tobacco epidemic and its spread, instead promoting a new generation of nicotine-dependent people. In Latvia, every second 13- to 15-year-old teenager has tried smoking an electronic cigarette at least once in his or her lifetime.