Nicotine, in all its forms, is highly toxic to the heart and blood vessels, experts say.

According to the report, three-quarters of young adults who use e-cigarettes have never smoked before. And it highlights significant growth in the consumption of electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine sachets among adolescents and young adults.

The report’s authors call for urgent action to curb the growing number of adolescents and young people becoming addicted to nicotine, including banning flavors and advertising on social media and influencers, as well as effectively taxing and regulating all nicotine products.

The study was authored by doctors from Germany, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The written document comes at a critical time of regulatory change, following the revision of the European Commission’s Tobacco Tax Directive, which introduces, for the first time, a minimum tax on e-cigarette liquids, heated tobacco and nicotine sachets.

The 7 main conclusions reached by the experts were:

1. Nicotine is a potent cardiovascular toxin that causes damage to the heart and blood vessels regardless of the form of administration.
2. No product containing nicotine is safe for your blood vessels or your heart. This includes electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco, hookahs, cigars and nicotine sachets for oral use.
3. Addiction among young people is growing rapidly, driven by flavors, social media marketing and regulatory loopholes.
4. Passive exposure to smoke, vapors and emissions from heated tobacco also causes vascular damage.
5. Electronic cigarettes and loungebags are not effective tools for quitting smoking, but rather a gateway to smoking and often lead to dual use (with cigarettes).
6. Tobacco-related illnesses cost hundreds of billions of euros in healthcare and lost productivity each year.
7. Policy loopholes persist across Europe, allowing new nicotine products to evade taxes, packaging rules and restrictions on public use.

The report’s authors recommend that flavors in all nicotine products be banned; that a tax be imposed on all nicotine products in proportion to their nicotine content; which has plain packaging for all nicotine products; in addition to creating more comprehensive laws for smoke- and aerosol-free indoor and outdoor environments.

Doctors are also calling for stricter controls on online sales and a ban on social media advertising, the integration of smoking prevention into cardiovascular care, and national cardiovascular prevention plans that explicitly address nicotine.

However, researchers caution that the long-term effects of new tobacco products are not yet known and more research is needed to fully understand their impacts.

They further stated that many people consume cigarettes with other nicotine products, making it difficult to identify the effects of each product individually.

“Our results show that nicotine alone, even without the plethora of toxic combustion products, tar or free radicals found in cigarette smoke, causes cardiovascular damage. “The next heart attack, the next stroke, the next cardiovascular death may not be caused by a cigarette, but rather by a flavored nicotine, a nicotine pouch or a hookah in a coffee shop. If Europe does not act now, we will face the biggest wave of nicotine addiction since the 1950s,” said Professor Thomas Münzel of the University Medical Center Mainz, one of the authors of the report.

Professor Filippo Crea of ​​the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy, also said traditional risk factors should not be reduced, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking.