Uptake of e-cigarettes poses serious health risks

City Desk :
Hamidur Rahman (pseudo name), a 17-year old college student, finds himself drawn to e-cigarettes as he sees the fascinating advertisements in Facebook and various online platforms.

Eventually, he buys an e-cigarette from a shop under the influence of a friend, reports BSS.

Hamidur said that many adolescents like him have been using e-cigarettes as a fashion these days.

The rising trend of using e-cigarettes among adolescents in Bangladesh is increasing at an alarming rate.

Due to lack of necessary initiatives or measures to control or stop this trend, the use of these products has increased extensively on roadsides, campuses, hangouts and at vaping clubs of young people.

Moreover, e-cigarettes have become easily accessible and are gaining popularity on Facebook and other online platforms, largely due to the manipulative tactics and strategies employed by marketers.

Health experts are saying that young people are starting to smoke with e-cigarettes nowadays.

Despite being equally harmful as cigarettes, many are using e-cigarettes as a hobby due to the variety of flavors and attractive designs.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2021 stated that there are about 16,000 unique flavors of emerging tobacco products available in the markets.

The use of these products in several countries including Europe and America has taken a terrible turn.

A study conducted in America showed that the use of e-cigarettes among school-aged adolescents increased 78pc in 2018 compared to 2017, within just one-year timeframe.