The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has taken initiatives to strengthen the country's Tobacco Control (TC) law through an amendment.
The amendment initiative has come with a view to addressing a number of high-priority policy commitments that include implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ensuring compliance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by the World Health Organization (WHO), said a press release on Wednesday.
The amendment initiative has already completed a number of vital steps, such as preparing the draft amendment, releasing the draft amendment on the website, and collecting opinions from stakeholders.
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During the discussions, speakers highlighted that tobacco companies are not allowed to get involved in drafting the amendment proposals.
The speakers also did not forget to mention that tobacco affects nearly 161,000 lives each year in Bangladesh and causes hundreds of thousands of illnesses and disabilities. To tackle the massive loss of lives due to tobacco use, the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed her commitment to amend the tobacco control law in line with WHO FCTC in 2016.
