Given the scientific evidence at hand, do you believe it is right to ban e-cigarettes/vaping in Bangladesh? Will this ban send Bangladesh further away from its smoke-free ambitions?
No I don't, I think that would be a great shame. I can understand that there might be a lot of pressure because India has banned e-cigarettes but there has been evidence of widespread availability of the products from the illicit market. It is safe to say that banning and prohibition never works.
The New Zealand government priced cigarettes out of the range for the lowest income people who tend to have the highest smoking incidence. Since 2017, we've had massive spikes and raids of shops selling cigarettes. And this is what's happening in Australia now as well. There's a lot of concern about young people to legally buy vaping products, but they are buying somehow from the illicit market meaning the government is losing out on both ends.
For the size of Bangladesh's population and the number of people who are dying every year from exposure to smoke, this is a way to reduce the diseases and threats. I think that needs to be justified by any government if they are planning to become smoke-free. We know that everything else will take a longer time to reduce smoking rates. It's far better to regulate and have regulated stores that sell the tested products.
There have been claims that e-cigarettes are equally if not more harmful than traditional cigarettes. Do you think this misleads policymakers?
I think it's helpful to see misinformation on vaping and the extreme anti-vaping sentiment as part of a more global phenomenon, that's going to involve more people to study and research about it. But vaping isn't the only topic on which misinformation is being spread on. You know we have had a lot of misinformation about the Covid virus, there's a lot of misinformation about diets, also that you shouldn't eat meat or sugar or this or that. More often than not, most of these claims are later proven to be baseless.
Misinformation, therefore, is a global problem now because of the internet. We also have rich people who have heavily invested in pharmaceutical companies and funding NGOs to drive anti-vaping campaigns. Massive amounts of money is going into these companies to create ads, posters and appearances based on complete falsehood.
Pictures are going viral like children having worms under their skin if they vape, and that's ridiculous! The pharmaceutical companies promote nicotine replacement products like gums, patches, inhalers, the lozenges which they think are more effective, and continue to discourage vaping. I think there's a lot of funding and lobbying behind it. The truth is people need to locate robust science. There are so much fake sciences where people are focusing to research the harms only, in exchange of money. It's hard for us to make people realize the actual path.
The THR framework in New Zealand has been helping a lot of people to quit smoking. What can Bangladesh learn from New Zealand?
The success of it, really. The Ministry of Health in New Zealand boasts that smoking incidence is dropping far more rapidly than ever before. As smoking prevalence declines, vaping rates are increasing with people shifting to the less harmful alternative.
THR tools do not involve combustion or burning of the tobacco and breathing in that smoke. People will use a less risky product if it's available and accessible for them. The other thing about New Zealand is that the smoking prevalence hasn't dropped in the higher income groups -- the rate is coming down in people who have been left behind such as indigenous women and lower income groups.
Do you think the New Zealand model can be followed in a developing country like Bangladesh? If not, what can Bangladesh do differently to achieve results like New Zealand?
Obviously, the high costs associated could be a barrier to ensure access and affordability of such products. In New Zealand, it started out with people who were traveling overseas, who could buy online products. But with the support of government, the people of lower income groups were also enabled to use vapes.
In a country like Bangladesh, where there's a large diversity of people, smoking rate is likely to be higher in rural areas, among refugees and indigenous people. Of course it will be hard but you have to start somewhere in order to usher in such a significant social change.
People who have the resources, who have riches should come first and start showing that vaping is normal and it's less risky and then the others will follow. The more people you'll have for vaping, the price will be cheaper along with risk-proportionate excise and duties to make these products more affordable for lower income groups.
In Bangladesh, there is a 212% import tax on e-cigarettes and vapes, THR activists in Bangladesh believe due to this high tax levied upon reduced risk products, vaping is very expensive in Bangladesh. If this tax is reduced, do you think vaping will be much more accessible or is there any other barrier that would prevent adult smokers from switching to e-cigarettes/vapes?
Previously, we had a very higher tax regime on the import of THR products in New Zealand. In order to encourage people to shift from smoking cigarettes to vaping is, the government imposed a ‘no tax' policy on vaping products. You must have a clear advantage cost-wise to make the shift happen and it has been a big driver.
Of course, the government runs campaigns in the media along the lines of ‘vapes to quit' which surprised a lot of smokers. When the government passed the legislation, that's when we really started observing the massive shift. In USA, there are some states that tax vaping products and others that do not. Needless to say, smoking rates are higher where the taxes are levied.