Strong tobacco control law is mandatory to protect public health and achieve a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040 as announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said Members of Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum.
They came up with the assertion while speaking at a workshop titled 'Prioritizing Tobacco Control to the Policy Makers'.
The workshop was organised by National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh in collaboration with Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids at Hotel La Vinci in the capital on Monday.
The keynote was presented by Dr Sheikh Md Mahbubus Sobhan, Registrar (Clinical Research) of the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute.
He said some 37.8 million adults in Bangladesh use tobacco.
“Use of tobacco products is one of the leading causes of heart disease, cancer, chest disease and many other diseases and deaths. More than one lakh sixty-one thousand people die of tobacco-related diseases every year in the country. Hence the tobacco control law needs to be strengthened to protect the public health from these harmful effects of tobacco,” he said.
Mostafizur Rahman, lead policy adviser for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said “Various aspects of the country's existing smoking and tobacco use (control) law are in line with the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), but there are weaknesses in some areas. If these problems are addressed, the law will be more effective.”
Journalists attending the workshop said that six important amendments to the Tobacco Control law should get priority to the policy makers.
These include making all public places and public transports tobacco-free, banning the display of tobacco products in stores, banning the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of tobacco companies, banning the import, manufacture, sale and use of e-cigarettes, increasing the size of pictorial health warnings printed on tobacco products and prohibiting sales of single stick cigarettes.
President of Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum, Rashed Rabbi said, “Health Reporters Forum is constantly working giving importance to public health. Members of this forum regularly generate report on tobacco control to make policy makers aware of the amendments to the Tobacco Control Act.”
