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With the gradual development of global anti-tobacco campaigns, tobacco companies are scrambling to keep people hooked on alternatives by creating confusion in mass crowd. They have a keen eye on developing and under-developed countries like Bangladesh. To sustain the tobacco business, it has brought technology-based e-cigarettes, vape, heated tobacco products to the market. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are currently 16,000 flavored emerging tobacco products available in the market.
Essentially, an e-cigarette is an artificial cigarette that emits smoke without lighting it. These include nicotine, propylene, glycol and herbal glycerin in addition to a variety of flavors. This e-cigarette releases nicotine with a puff which is addictive. This nicotine causes cancer like other tobacco nicotine. No scientist is saying that e-cigarettes are completely pollution-free or risk-free. All the chemicals released from the smoke of this e-cigarette are also present in other regular tobacco products. So its harmful effects are no less than those of real cigarettes. Its toxins are very harmful to the human body.
E-cigarettes are attractive and addictive. The use of these harmful substances leads to nicotine addiction, which is very harmful to health. E-cigarettes are not safe. the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already warned. There is a lot of research going on about its harmful aspects. Most of the studies show extremely harmful negative aspects.
Researchers at the University of Rochester, New York, USA, said that the harmful free radicals released from e-cigarettes cause poisoning in the lung cells, as soon as its heating element is activated, the path of this poisoning is facilitated. This heating element converts a liquid solution (e-liquid or juice) into an aerosol. As a result, the vapors that enter the body through the exhaled air, contain various carcinogenic substances in the form of heavy metals and nanoparticles. These carcinogenic substances directly attack the lungs, blood stream and other body cells. As a result, the chances of getting sick are much higher. Moreover, the reason for the damage caused by e-cigarettes to the human body is that e-cigarettes contain some cancer-producing and toxic chemicals such as formalin-dehyde and acetyl-dehyde. Researchers have already warned that e-cigarettes may never be a healthy alternative to regular cigarettes.
A study conducted in Japan showed that e-cigarettes are 10 times more harmful than regular cigarettes! Vape, e-cigarette users can suffer from stroke, heart attack, sudden cardiac death. Since these device-based cigarettes also contain nicotine, their users may develop high blood pressure and cholesterol imbalances, which causes the heart failure. According to a research report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the liquid used in e-cigarettes disables blood vessel cells, which causes heart disease. Vape, e-cigarettes increase the risk of stroke by 71 percent, and the risk of heart attack by 59 percent! Which has come up in various studies.
Nicotine in e-cigarettes not only damages the mucous membranes of the airways but also greatly increases the risk of chronic bronchitis (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine). Vaping users increase the release of dopamine in the body, which gives the brain a sense of relaxation. As a result, the user's brain perceives the vapor as a sedative and becomes addictive.
Vape, e-cigarette, or heat tobacco products are technology dependent. They are powered by a number of electronic parts, one of which is the 'battery'. E-cigarettes use powerful batteries that generate heat. This battery has the potential to cause fatal injury to the user if it explodes. It can even lead to death. Such incidents have also happened in the recent past. In 2018, a 38-year-old man named Tolmage D'Ila was killed after an e-cigarette exploded in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. In 2019, a 24-year-old man named William Brown died in Texas, USA after his vape exploded. According to the autopsy report, the battery inside William Brown's e-cigarette exploded as soon as he inhaled it. He was sitting in the car at the time of the incident. The force of the blast was such that metal parts inside the car shattered into pieces and hit him in the face, skull and neck. It cuts an important artery and started bleeding.
The use of e-cigarettes, vape and heat tobacco products in the country is increasing at an alarming rate due to the false advertising and enticement activities of cigarette companies. They are bringing forward e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarettes and less harmful than regular cigarettes. Most of the people in our country (especially the youth) do not know the harmful effects of e-cigarettes. Lack of specific laws, policies and lack of awareness in the country to control e-cigarettes is one of the reasons for the significant increase in the use of these addictive drugs.
A current concern is called 'E-Cigarettes'. Nowadays, teenagers, and young adults are adopting e-cigarettes as a current fashion. Tobacco companies are expanding the e-cigarette market by using different flavors to attract young people, along with cigarette companies' false advertising. American research shows that e-cigarette use has increased by seventy-eight (78%) percent among school-going youth in the United States in just one year from 2017 to 2018. Eighty-five (85%) percent of high school students use flavored e-cigarettes because they like the flavor.
According to the Tobacco Control and Research Cell (TCRC), e-cigarette shops in Bangladesh have been set up in university centers only to attract young people. Different types of advertisements of these harmful products are also circulating on social media. Be it vapes, e-cigarettes, heat tobacco or emerging tobacco, they are nuclear bombs for the destruction of our young generation. Becoming increasingly monstrous, which is important to suppress. Because conventional tobacco is already a big problem for us.
87 million people die every year due to tobacco. 13 lakh people die every year due to second-hand smoke. Bangladesh is one of the top 10 tobacco-consuming countries in the world. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey—GATS 2017, 35.3% of adults in Bangladesh consume tobacco. As such, the number of tobacco users is 3 crore 78 lakh, of which 18% (1 crore 92 lakh) use tobacco by smoking and 20.6% (2 crore 20 lakh) use smokeless tobacco. Among the adult population in Bangladesh, 39% (about 48 million) are exposed to second-hand smoke at home, 42.7% (about 81 million) at work and 44% (about 250 million) in public transport. Every year more than 1 lakh 61 thousand people die due to tobacco. 30 thousand crore rupees are spent on the health sector. With which one more Padma Multi-purpose Bridge can be built.
Despite all the existing damage to tobacco, tobacco companies are rushing to legalize the new deadly e-cigarette business. The target is the vast majority of our total population, the youth. A healthy population is a prerequisite for development. Note that tobacco is one of the leading causes of preventable death in Bangladesh. Currently, Sixty Seven percent (67%) of deaths are due to non-communicable diseases. In order to ensure a healthy nation in the future, it is necessary to focus on the health of the youth. Young people cannot be sacrificed to serve the company's lust for profit. If the use and indirect harm of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, increases, the pressure on the health sector will increase. The health sector is already in a bad state. In addition, which would be the 'wound of the rack upon the die.'
It is important to take steps to control the use of e-cigarettes in our country before it reaches a dangerous level. The hope is that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken steps to ban the import, production, sale, marketing and use of e-cigarettes or vaping in Bangladesh. The amendment to the existing 'Smoking and Use of Tobacco Products (Control) Act' has added a provision to ban e-cigarettes.
47 countries around the world including Argentina, Brazil, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India have banned electronic nicotine delivery systems or e-cigarettes. Article 5.2 of the FCTC provides guidance in this regard, which is binding on signatory states. Considering this importance, in 2021 more than 150 members of the National Assembly have recommended in writing to the Hon'ble Prime Minister which is a very timely and commendable initiative.
Misleading campaigns by tobacco companies make many people think that e-cigarettes pose less health risks than regular cigarettes, so they are using e-cigarettes or many are getting vaped. But the fact is, e-cigarettes are much more harmful than conventional cigarettes. So, as a physician, I request everyone to avoid beedis, cigarettes, jorda-gul, sadapata and halal vape, e-cigarettes or heat tobacco products. It is very important to keep our young society away from them. If not, the future of our Sonar Bengal is dark! Also, it will be a challenge for us to implement 'Tobacco-free Bangladesh' by 2040 as announced by the Honorable Prime Minister. Therefore, the import, manufacture, sale, marketing, and use of vape, e-cigarettes, heat tobacco, or emerging tobacco should be banned immediately.
The writer, a recipient of Ekushe Padak winner, is Founder President of MANAS (Association for the Prevention of Drug Abuse)
Messenger/Disha
