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Ahead of World No Tobacco Day this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said global nicotine pouch sales exceeded 23 billion units in 2024, with the fastest growth observed among adolescents and young adults.

The UN health agency has also warned that aggressive marketing strategies -- including flavoured variants, social media campaigns and influencer endorsements -- are driving youth exposure to nicotine products.

According to WHO experts, nicotine exposure during adolescence can impair brain development, affecting learning, attention and impulse control, while significantly increasing the risk of long-term dependence.

“The use of nicotine pouches is spreading rapidly, while regulation struggles to keep pace,” the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative said in a recent report, urging governments to strengthen taxation, advertising restrictions and youth access controls.

The Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance (BATA) and the Bangladesh Network for Tobacco Tax Policy (BNTTP) have criticised the budget proposal, arguing that it risks opening the door to wider commercialisation of products they believe should be tightly regulated or prohibited.

They argued that the move departs from earlier tobacco control amendments proposed under the interim government, which reportedly included stricter restrictions on emerging nicotine products, and may be inconsistent with Bangladesh’s obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Bangladesh is a signatory to the FCTC, the global public health treaty aimed at reducing tobacco use and nicotine dependence. The government has also reiterated its long-term target of achieving a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040.

According to WHO estimates, around 161,000 people in Bangladesh die each year from tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco use remains a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer and chronic respiratory conditions.

Barrister Nishat Mahmood, member-secretary of the Public Health Lawyers Network, said nicotine pouches are highly addictive and pose significant risks to brain development, particularly among adolescents and young adults.

“Their adverse health effects are comparable to, or potentially greater than, those of conventional cigarettes.”

Furthermore, empirical research suggests that the revenue generated from tobacco products is substantially outweighed by the associated healthcare costs and productivity losses, she added.

“Several countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Russia, have imposed complete bans on nicotine pouches, while more than 30 others have adopted strict regulatory measures.”

She went on to say that the government is constitutionally and legally obliged to restrict harmful products, not introduce new ones. “By imposing taxes that effectively legalise novel nicotine products such as pouches, the government has failed in its primary duty.”

Sohel Reza Choudhury, professor at the department of epidemiology and research of the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, said the growing use of nicotine pouches among adolescents and young adults could expose them to nicotine dependence at an early age and increase the likelihood of transitioning to other tobacco products, including cigarettes, later in life.

Rumana Huque, professor of economics at the University of Dhaka, said relying on nicotine products as a revenue source is both illogical and dangerous, as it puts profit above public health.

Prof Golam Mohiuddin Faruque, an oncologist and president of the Bangladesh Cancer Society, said, “The long-term public health consequences of nicotine pouch use would far outweigh any revenue generated through taxation.”

He warned that the widespread use of such products among youth could undermine the country’s efforts to develop a healthy and productive future generation capable of contributing to the demographic dividend.

Faruque believes that nicotine pouches should be completely banned rather than legitimised through taxation.