Catch them young! The World Health Organization (WHO) on World No Tobacco Day on Sunday is reaching out to Generation Z — the kids and school students to make them aware and alert about the nefarious tactics adopted by the tobacco lobby to lure them to their nicotine and tobacco products.

It will launch school kits exposing the tactics such as parties and concerts hosted by the tobacco and related industries, e-cigarette flavours that attract youth like bubble-gum and candy, e-cigarette representatives presenting in schools, and product placement in popular youth  streaming shows.

The kit for school students aged 13-17 has a set of classroom activities including one that puts the students in the shoes of the tobacco industry to make them aware of how the industry tries to manipulate them into using deadly products. It also includes an educational video, myth-buster quiz, and homework assignments.

The focus of World No Tobacco Day, this year, is “protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use”. Health experts say that industry eye children in a bid to replace the eight million people that its products kill every year.

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO Regional Office for the South-East Asia (WHO SEARO) in her message on the occasion advised the countries of the South-East Asia Region that schools can raise awareness of the dangers of initiating nicotine and tobacco use by providing information resources and making their campuses tobacco and ENDS free.

“Youth groups can organise local events to engage and educate young people on the many harms of tobacco use, including its impact on personal finances,” she said.

Dr Jagdish Kaur, Regional Adviser, Tobacco Free Initiative (WHO SEARO) added protecting youth from tobacco use, new and emerging tobacco and nicotine products and the tactics of tobacco industry is of paramount importance for a tobacco free generation.

According to the WHO, every year the tobacco industry invests more than USD 9 billion to advertise its products.

Even during a global pandemic, the tobacco and nicotine industry persist by pushing products that limit people’s ability to fight coronavirus and recover from the disease. The industry has offered free branded masks and delivery to your door during quarantine and has lobbied for their products to be listed as ‘essential’. Little wonder that over 40 million young people aged 13-15 have already started to use tobacco.

“Educating youth is vital because nearly 9 out of 10 smokers start before age 18. We want to provide young people with the knowledge to speak out against tobacco industry manipulation,” said Ruediger Krech, Director for Health Promotion at WHO.

Countries can protect children from industry exploitation by putting in place strict tobacco control laws, including regulating products like e-cigarettes that have already begun to hook a new generation of young people, said the WHO.