Pinky Akter
E-Cigarettes have become a trend for the smoker community in recent years. E-cigarettes are electronic cigarettes or vaping. Nowadays young people are using it as a fashion.Young people especially teenagers are also getting interested in e-cigarettes as they are readily available and easy to carry.
This battery-operated device produces smoke like a cigarette. Vaping has a scent, but the liquid contains nicotine, just like cigarettes. Experts said that it is equivalent to consuming tobacco. They claim that vaping can lead to more complex diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, brain stroke. And so that tobacco control organizations demand to ban it now. Dr. Arup Ratan Chowdhury has worked in tobacco and drug control for a long time. He says, “If this dangerous vaping is not banned now, it will lead to serious health risks for the youth as well as their drug addiction”.
E-cigarettes have been banned in 47 countries including Brazil, Argentina and India. In this regard Arup Ratan said, “The demand for these tobacco products has increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This increases the risk of coronavirus infection. He also added that e-cigarettes are the first step in drug addiction, which is now like an addiction for young people. From which we must come out now.”
According to the latest data from 2017 in Nature Reviews Cardiology, all e-cigarette users who have reported heart problems have been tested and found to be caused by nicotine. Since the recent Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) was conducted among the 15, it is difficult to get a true picture of emerging tobacco product use through this study. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2017, the rate of e-cigarette use among the population aged 15 and above in Bangladesh is zero and two percent.
According to WHO’s 2021 data, there are 16,000 flavored emerging tobacco products on the market. Another study conducted in the United States, the use of E-cigarettes among young people in the United States increased by 7 percent in just one year in 2018 compared to 2017. 85 percent of young people use different flavored e-cigarettes because they like the taste or smell.
In Bangladesh too, the use of these tobacco products is increasing among the youth and young people, which is a concern for public health. The use of these products is widely seen in streets, campuses, youth hangouts, various markets and vaping clubs established at street corners. Numerous sales centers have been established in various divisional cities including Dhaka. These products are available even in cosmetics stores.
Even young people are being influenced to be interested in these products in various ways online and on Facebook. Iqbal Masud, a member of the National Tobacco Control Task Force, said, “Government initiatives are needed to stop these products. If not, the demand for it is increasing day by day, which will turn out to be dire for the youth. And that would be difficult to control.”
Experts say that not only health risks but also serious explosions can occur from E-cigarettes with excessive use.
On the other hand, environmental activists say that hazardous waste from e-cigarettes is endangering plant and animal life. Metals, plastics and batteries in these products add to waste. Plastic pouches or packets of smokeless tobacco end up in roads, drains, and sewage systems. They also poison the groundwater. Which indirectly enters the body of humans and cattle through the food chain.
These products come in different ways in the country. These products are being brought more from China.
Bangladesh has a high concentration of young population in the world. And the target of the tobacco companies are mainly these young people. Therefore, experts also advise the youth to join various social activities in the country. So that they do not fall into the trap of these products.
