Tobacco claims 57,000 a year: Health minister

Health and Family Welfare Minister AFM Ruhul Haque yesterday said around 57,000 people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases in the country, while around 382,000 people are becoming physically or mentally disabled as a result of tobacco use.
The minister said this while inaugurating a four-day regional workshop titled 'MPOWER policy package for strengthening tobacco control' by World Health Organisation (WHO) that began at a city hotel yesterday.
MPOWER stands for monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and raising taxes on tobacco products.
Ruhul further said that the net economic loss for the country due to tobacco usage is around $442 million per year.
“Bangladesh showed its strong commitment to tobacco control by becoming the first country to sign the 'WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)' and in line with the treaty, the country has enacted a tobacco control law in 2005,” he said, adding the provisions of the law have been reflected in the national plan of actions for tobacco control in order to reduce tobacco consumption.
“I am sure that this workshop will be able to provide a direction for stakeholders to further strengthen the tobacco control activities in the South East Asian region and particularly in Bangladesh,” he further said.
Speaking as the special guest, DGHS Director General Prof Shah Monir Hossain said a sincere effort to implement and enforce the MPOWER package could reverse the tobacco epidemic.
He stressed the need for strong coordination and cooperation among many government agencies, academic institutions, professional bodies, relevant stakeholders and civil society organisations at local level as well as coordinated support of international cooperation and development agencies to free the county of tobacco.
Director (Programme Management) of WHO SEAR Office Dr Myint Htwe said, “If countries have political commitments, technical and logistic support to implement the MPOWER policy package, they can save millions of lives.”