Home ›› 31 May 2023 ›› News
Today is the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ (WNTD). This year’s theme of WNTD is "Grow Food, Not Tobacco", aiming to raise awareness on alternative crop production and encourage existing tobacco farmers into growing sustainable crops.
In terms of tobacco use, Bangladesh is the 9th largest country in the world. A staggering 35.3 per cent of adults (15 y/o and above) use tobacco products while tobacco-related illness claims 1, 61,000 lives every year. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study-2019, tobacco is one of the four contributing factors to deaths and disabilities in Bangladesh with a financial toll of Tk 30,560 crore.
PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) also aims to expose the tobacco industry’s ill tactics used in the expansion of tobacco cultivation at the cost of the country's limited arable land, threatening food security.
Approximately 4 million hectares of land are being used in 125 countries around the globe for tobacco cultivation. Most of these countries are low and middle-income countries such as Bangladesh.
Tobacco companies are using corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes as a tool to hide the devastating impact of tobacco cultivation and 'greenwash' their brands.
PROGGA Executive Director ABM Zubair said, "The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed a comprehensive ban on CSR programs of tobacco companies in the draft amendment of the tobacco control law which has been sent to the Cabinet Division for approval.
“The faster the amendment proposal is finalised, the easier it will be to realise the vision of tobacco-free Bangladesh."
