Online Desk :
A recent webinar organised by the Bangladesh-based the Voices of Vapers presented the case for vaping as a quit-smoking tool, and answered questions by from journalists and other audience members, said a press release.
Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said that the potential successful quit possible through vaping is astonishing. According to projection by World Vapers’ Alliance, 200 million people worldwide would be able to successfully quit cigarette smoking by switching to vaping.
“I looked up the numbers for Bangladesh as well. [In Bangladesh] Alone 6 million people can [potentially] switch from smoking to vaping, if Bangladesh would implement the same regulations as the UK,” he said.
“We know for a fact that most people fail to quit, and vaping is almost miraculous because it actually makes it possible to quit,” he said.
“If you compare UK and Australia you can see that the UK, where the government adopted vaping,slashed smoking rate by 25%, whereas Australia, where government policy did not endorse vaping, the number is only 8%.”
Schumann Zaman, President of Bangladesh Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Traders, Association (BENDSTA) said that vaping is five to seven times more effective than any other nicotine replacement therapy and economically more convenient.
“Vaping is already proven to be 95% less harmful than cigarette smoking, as Public Health England found,” said Zaman.
He said that vaping doesn’t pose the risk to bystanders as cigarettes do. “Second hand smoke from cigarettes kills around 1.2 million people a year [worldwide],” he said.
Zaman said that a no-taxation policy for vaping will help a huge number of smokers to quit smoking.
Dr Rajib Joarder, Health Service Management and Policy Making, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that people opposing vaping do not know about the scientific evidence about vaping being safer than smoking. He thinks that people are being subjected to misinformation.
“It’s not about taking up vaping, but it is about quitting smoking,” he said.
Vapes do not have carcinogens like cigarettes, which is one of the biggest reason why vaping is considered as a safe smoking cessation tools, he said.
