The World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) was observed on Friday in the country as elsewhere in the world, highlighting health and additional risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to cut tobacco consumption, reports BSS.
This year’s theme of the day is “Tobacco and Lung Health”.
Marking the day, Association for the Prevention of Drug Abuse (MANAS) organised a meeting in the capital today.
Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, State Minister for Cultural Affairs Ministry KM Khalid and Acting Secretary of Youth and Sports Ministry Dr Md Jafar Uddin, among others, spoke at the meeting with MANAS founding President Dr Arupratan Chowdhury in the chair.
Speaking at the meeting, Dr Hasan said the government has imposed many conditions against tobacco use and the rate of tobacco consumption has reduced significantly here.
Urging the young generation to stay away from tobacco use to live a healthy life, he said, adding “I, myself, didn’t take tobacco in my entire life as I promised to my father that I would not take tobacco.”
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the eve of the day.
The national newspapers published special supplements while Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and other private TV channels aired special programmes highlighting the adverse impacts of tobacco for marking the day.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), among the top five reasons of deaths globally two were lung and respiratory complicacies. Tobacco use and secondhand smoke create lung cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Tuberculosis and Asthma.
Tobacco kills more than eight million people globally each year. Exposure to secondhand smoke kills another one million, a considerable part of which are children.
Tobacco is the fifth major reason behind premature deaths in Bangladesh, contributing to more than 126,000 deaths a year.
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