The number of e-cigarette smokers is increasing at a geometric rate
The number of e-smokers and the use of e-cigarettes is increasing alarmingly at a geometric rate.
This information was revealed in the results of a study in this regard at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) seminar on Tuesday (April 4). Inter Press Network IPN has demanded banning of e-cigarettes aimed at creating a tobacco-free Bangladesh in the seminar.
The research on the strategy of the tobacco industry in the development of new products in Bangladesh was jointly carried out by Ehsanul Haque Jasim, a PhD researcher and media person of Dhaka University, and Syed Saiful Alam, a tobacco control researcher. This six-month field study was conducted in 2022.
According to the research survey results, after the first arrival of e-cigarettes in Bangladesh in 2012, for the first 4/5 years there were only a few e-cigarette shops in some elite areas of the capital. The number of e-smokers was also very low back then. E-cigarettes are now available across the country. The number of e-smokers and the use of e-cigarettes is increasing alarmingly at a geometric rate.
According to the survey, 22 percent of stores that opened between 2012 and 2016 are still selling e-cigarettes. The remaining 78 percent of e-cigarette shops opened within five years after 2016 (2017-2021). A few dapping shops have grown in just five years, but the sales of older shops have not decreased; Rather, sales are increasing day by day in both new and old stores. The fact that most e-cigarette shops have opened in just a few years is proof of the rapid and alarming spread of e-cigarettes in recent times in Bangladesh. Due to various strategies of tobacco companies, the use of e-cigarettes in Bangladesh and the market for these new tobacco products is expanding at a geometric rate.
The study recommends banning e-cigarettes in Bangladesh through legislation. It also recommended setting up a separate department under the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) under the Ministry of Health to curb the expansion of the e-cigarette market.
The seminar was presided over by the Executive Director of Inter Press Network Golam Mawla. The panel discussant was the founding chairman of MANOS and the head of BIRDEM's Dental Department- a valiant freedom fighter Dr. Arup Ratan Chowdhury, former chairman of the National Revenue Board Dr. Nasir Uddin Ahmad, Project Director of Bangladesh Cancer Society Professor Dr. Mohiuddin Farooq, Chairman of Poribesh Bachao Abdolon – PoBA (Save Environment Movement) Abu Nasser Khan, Technical Consultant of The Union Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin and Chairman of Stamford University Environmental Sciences Department Professor Dr. Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumdar.
