Urgent calls for strengthening tobacco-control laws to protect public health
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By Shastho Shurokkha Foundation
- Thursday, 16th January, 2025
A delegation from Jagannath University’s Anti-Tobacco Club and Shastho Shurokkha Foundation met with Professor Dr. Md. Sayedur Rahman, Special Assistant to the Honorable Health Advisor at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh Secretariat Building, Dhaka on Thursday, January 16, 2025. On this occasion, a memorandum was submitted urging the government to enact stronger laws against tobacco companies to protect public health.
The memorandum stated that approximately 35.3% of the adult population in Bangladesh consumes tobacco and tobacco products. Annually, nearly 161,000 people in Bangladesh die from tobacco-related diseases (Tobacco Atlas 2020). In the 2017-18 fiscal year, the economic loss due to tobacco consumption (including medical expenses and lost productivity) amounted to 30,560 crore taka (Bangladesh Cancer Society, 2018). Overall, this picture of tobacco use is alarming. It is imperative to strengthen the existing tobacco control law, enforce it more rigorously, and amend it per World Health Organization guidelines to address this situation.