Taorem Sananu, a student from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), bags the first prize at the Global Media Competition (GMC), a design competition organised by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), a partner of STOP (a global tobacco industry watchdog).
This year, Taorem won the first prize under the Social Media Graphics category for her work entitled “Tobacco Doesn’t Decompose Itself”, said a press release.
GGTC has just announced the winners of the 2022 Global Media Competition, which sought visually compelling graphics and videos on the theme of “Disaster in Disguise: Tobacco Companies’ Environmental Harms” - in line with World No Tobacco Day 2022 theme of “Tobacco: Threat to our Environment”.
All the entries, including winners’ artworks, received towards the competition have been featured in the Multimedia Hub (MMH), a resource made available to governments and advocates interested in countering the tobacco industry interference in accordance with WHO FCTC, a global health treaty.
A panel of judges, comprised of communications experts from global public health and environment, selected winners from a shortlist out of over 800 entries from over 40 countries. The public was also given an opportunity to vote online for their favorite shortlisted entries.
It is also worth noting that Taorem was awarded the Second Place in last year’s Global Media Competition under the Infographics category.
The second and third place prize winners, for this category, were awarded to participants from the Philippines and their work can be viewed in the Multimedia Hub.
According to “How Should Tobacco Companies Pay for their Pollution,” a STOP environment country brief in collaboration with PROGGA, the plastics in tobacco products alone causes damage worth BDT 87 billion, per year, in marine pollution and waste management for Bangladesh. That’s around USD 21 B globally, per year. The data was drawn from GGTC’s Tobacco’s Toxic Plastics: A Global Outlook, which also outlines the additional dangers of tobacco industry sponsorships in covering up the unique harms of cigarette butts, a chemical and heavy metal-laden form of single use plastic.
