Staff Reporter :
The use of e-cigarette continues to rise at a fast pace in Bangladesh.
It is taking the Bangladesh market by storm as many youths are being addicted to the harmful novel tobacco product following tobacco companies’ various tactics.
The e-cigarette has become a serious threat to public health as tin, nickel, cadmium, lead and other toxic chemicals exist in vaping products. As a result, the risk of cancer, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke and different other diseases are increasing in the country.
Anti-tobacco activists, researchers on tobacco control and experts on public health think that the e-cigarette is becoming an apocalypse for the youth and adolescent groups in the country in absence of proper legislation and lack of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned.
They made their observation at a discussion titled “E-Cigarettes: Health Hazard, Challenges, and Way Forward” held at Platinum Grand Hotel at Banani in the capital on Saturday.
Tobacco Control & Research Cell (TCRC) of Dhaka International University, Inter Press Network-IPN and Initiative for Public Health Research & Communication (IPHRC) jointly arranged the discussion.
Presenting keynote speech at the event, Farhana Zaman Liza, project manager of TCRC; said that a holistic approach is needed to rein in the e-cigarette market in Bangladesh before it becomes an apocalypse.
Panel discussants and other speakers supported her views, saying that it is necessary to hold the rein of e-cigarette in the country to save the young generation.
Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary, MP, president of TCRC; presided over the event, while Professor Dr. Golam Mohiuddin Faruque, president of Bangladesh Cancer Society; Dr. Rumana Huque, an expert on tobacco tax and a professor of Economics at Dhaka University; and Prof. Md. Anowar Hussain, dean at Faculty of Public Health at Bangladesh University of Health Science (BUHS); spoke on the occasion.
Md. Bazlur Rahman, an associate professor at DIU and member secretary of TCRC; delivered the welcome speech, while Sushanta Sinha, special correspondent at Ekattor TV and executive director of IPHRC; and Ehsanul Haque Jasim, a Ph.D researcher at Dhaka University and executive director of IPN; were panel discussants at the event. Kafayet Ullah Chowdhury Shakil, director of IPN; Polash Chandra Bhoumik, teacher of Bangladesh University of Health Science (BUHS); Khalil Ullah of NATAB and Kamrunnisa Munna of CLPA Trust also attended the event, among others.
