Mentioning over 1.61 lakh people die of tobacco-related diseases in Bangladesh every year, anti-tobacco activists have urged the government to prohibit tobacco products’ display in retail markets.
They came up with the call at a workshop in the capital on Saturday.
In association of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) organised the event for media personnel at BMA Bhaban.
At the workshop, head of program at PROGGA Md Hasan Shahriar said that as 50 countries in the globe have already banned the display of tobacco products, the government should put emphasis on the issue to build a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040.
“There is no alternative to strengthen tobacco control laws to protect the country’s people. As high as 42.7 per cent people in workplace and 24 per cent in mass transportation in Bangladesh are affected indirectly by smoking. Besides, the country loses around Tk 4,100 crore indirectly.”
Shahriar said still 35 per cent adult population in the country are using tobacco, which is a very worrying issue. “Only a strong tobacco control law can protect public health in the country.
“Research says that nicotine, the alkaloid of tobacco, was found among 95 per cent students of primary schools in Dhaka. Besides, 50-70 per cent workers are children in bidi factories in the country,” he mentioned.
Shahriar said that Bangladesh collected Tk 22,810 crore from taxes on tobacco products in 2017-18 fiscal year while Tk 30,560 crore was spent for tobacco-related health issues in the same time.
With a proposal to prohibit the retail sale of bidi-cigarettes and unpacked jorda-gul, he called on to ban the import, manufacture and sale of all emerging tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.
CTFK Grants Manager Abdus Salam, PROGGA Executive Director ABM Zubair, NTV head of news Jahirul Alam, ATMA Convener Mortuza Haider Liton and Co-convener Nadira Kiron, among others, also spoke in the programme.
