- Md. Tasnim Hasan Abir
E-cigarettes are no less dangerous for health as compared to conventional cigarettes. These harmful commodities intelligently are being marketed to the youth through attractive campaigning by the tobacco companies, which is affecting the future of the nation. According to the World Health Organization, all emerging tobacco products including the e-cigarettes result in health hazards. To save the young generation from addiction towards e-cigarettes, their importation, sale, use, and promotion should be completely banned. It has to be kept in mind that tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, are big stumbling blocks on the way to a healthier society.
48 percent of the population in Bangladesh comprises young people. The prevalence of tobacco use among Bangladeshi students aged 13 to 15 years, according to the Global School-Based Health Survey, is 9.2%. This huge population of youth is required by the tobacco companies in order to expand their business at any cost in the name of profit maximization, which makes the young generation their biggest customers. In the absence of this age group, companies would have lost a greater share of their market. In this aspect, strengthening the tobacco control laws is an important step towards saving young people from the tactics of tobacco companies. Many young talents have become addicted to e-cigarettes under the disguise of modernity in recent years, bringing great harm to health and development.
The WHO has called for countries around the world to take urgent action in the regulation of e-cigarettes. In fact, so far 32 countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Singapore, have banned the sale of these dangerous products. Many others, including the UK, are working toward a ban. Similarly, Bangladesh needs to take prompt action to change the laws by banning the promotion, import, sale, and use of e-cigarettes. If not, the future would not be very good for Bangladesh.
E-cigarettes are a solution of nicotine that is heated by a battery; this creates a similar sensation to that of smoking. While gaining popularity, many European nations have outright banned them. Researchers indicate serious health risks associated with e-cigarettes. For example, a study appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine points to the presence of formaldehyde, a carcinogen, in e-cigarettes. With the lack of regulation in manufacturing e-cigarettes, the ingredients that go into them are unmonitored and vary greatly. The FDA reviewed 18 different e-cigarettes and found that each one contained toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Carcinogens, or cancer-causing elements, along with nicotine, are included, showing that there are uneven standards of quality in their production.
Though considered by many to be an aid in helping people to stop smoking, the research indicates otherwise. E-cigarettes contain carcinogenic chemicals that cause cancer and may further lead to terrible diseases of the lungs and respiratory infections. Although they might not contain tobacco, they do contain nicotine, which is very addictive. With that, people switching to e-cigarettes just to be able to quit regular smoking are not necessarily safer, and even the people around them are exposed to health risks.
Bangladesh has entered a new era of development through the leadership of young people, and reforms are highly visible in most fields. This trend should be continued in tobacco control. A tobacco-free Bangladesh is required to ensure a healthy future generation. Interestingly, Afghanistan has been able to motivate its farmers towards cultivating food crops rather than tobacco, which indeed benefited its economy. Bangladesh may follow this example.
The problem needs immediate attention as the e-cigarette spreads like an epidemic in the garb of modernity in the young lot and heralds a danger to the future of the country. It calls for the government to be really strict in the monitoring of this aspect. E-cigarettes are now available online-through various websites and Facebook pages-as well as in high-end retail outlets in the capital. Experts warn that youths start e-cigarettes as a hobby but often get hooked to regular smoking. Contrary to marketing claims that they are a safer alternative to traditional smoking, e-cigarettes are equally addictive.
According to the research done by various health experts and institutions, e-cigarettes are far more dangerous than ordinary cigarettes. Other than nicotine, they contain many chemicals that are injurious to one’s health. Moreover, 109 countries in the world, including neighboring countries like India and Nepal, have already introduced a complete or partial ban on e-cigarettes for their harmful effects. Even Australia has banned the importation of such e-cigarettes.
Moreover, accessibility to youth becomes easier as a number of online websites sell e-cigarettes at relatively lower costs with the advantage of home delivery. Websites such as vapecafe.com and vaporworldbd.com, among others, have listed prices for e-cigarettes between 3,000 and 5,000 taka. The fact that the Smoking and Tobacco Products Control Act of 2005-amended in 2013-does not address issues regarding e-cigarettes because they were, in fact, introduced after this Act came into being shows the loopholes in legislation that companies tend to misuse. In this respect, this law urgently needs an upgrade to match international standards, alongside putting a check on the production, importation, and sale of such products. If not, the online sales of e-cigarettes will keep on rising and result in mushrooming addiction amongst youngsters, resulting in disastrous health effects.
According to the American Stroke Association, flavorings in e-cigarettes heighten a person’s chronic diseases of the respiratory system, liver, and kidneys, while it raises throat cancer by 59%. Besides, nicotine in e-cigarettes poses considerable developmental risks to unborn children and pregnant mothers.
E-cigarettes are allowed to be used in places where traditional smoking is prohibited in many places, and for this reason, they have attained great popularity. But this does not reduce general smoking and increases health risks and expenses of smoking. According to research conducted in Japan, e-cigarettes were proved to be ten times more harmful than normal cigarettes. Addiction in any form is a bad thing, and public awareness needs to be made about traditional and electronic cigarettes.
E-cigarettes absolutely need to be banned in public areas. The public needs to come forward and fight this silent killer that is ravaging lives. For some, e-cigarettes had been promoted as the modern way to smoke. They contained many of the same chemicals known to be harmful, including nicotine. E-cigarettes have come in a variety of designs-from bent pipes to pens, phones, and USB drives-that appeal to a younger audience.
In 2018, the U.S. A joint study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, comprising over 400 research reports, revealed that youngsters who use e-cigarettes are at an increased risk for coughing, shortness of breath, and asthma. During that same year, the FDA described the act of vaping as an epidemic since cases of vape-related illnesses and deaths among young adults alarmingly increased. Unconventional chemicals, like THC-a psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis-make the black market varieties of e-juices consume more doses over time.
We need to take immediate and proper action against such a death trap. It has to be done through public, private, and NGO initiatives regarding the creation of awareness. Law amendments and a complete ban on e-cigarettes are the only hopes for a healthier future generation.
Writer: Md. Tasnim Hasan Abir, Member, Ahsania Mission Youth Forum for Health and Wellbeing, Post-graduate, Persian Language and Literature, University of Dhaka