Amend tobacco control act

To achieve a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040, the Tobacco Control Act needs to be amended, said speakers at a discussion yesterday.

The existing act has weaknesses in at least six sections, and as such, needs to be updated as soon as possible, they stated at the discussion on the importance of stricter measures to control the spread of tobacco.

National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh organised the event in Dhaka in collaboration with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum (BHRF).

Dr Ahmad Khairul Abrar, research coordinator of the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, in his keynote speech, highlighted that smokers are more prone to spreading Covid-19 due to behavioral reasons.

"If a smoker gets Covid-19, the risk of it turning severe is 2.5 to 14 times higher compared to a non-smoker," said Dr Abrar, citing World Health Organization from last year.

In Bangladesh, around 3.78 million adults use tobacco while another 38.4 million are victims of secondhand smoke in public places including workplace and public transport, according to Global Adult Tobacco survey 2017.

He said excessive use of tobacco products is one of the leading causes of heart disease, cancer, breast disease and many other preventable diseases and deaths.

Referring to different studies, he mentioned that more than 1.61 lakh people die due to tobacco related diseases every year in the country.

Speakers at the meeting demanded six important amendments to the Tobacco Control Act.

Those include -- 100 percent ban on smoking across all public places and transport, ban on the display of tobacco products in stores, ban on CSR activities of the tobacco companies, ban on the import, manufacture, sale and use of e-cigarettes, ban on the sale of single stick cigarette, and an increase in the size of pictorial health warnings.

Mostafizur Rahman, lead policy advisor of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said, "The existing act has many provisions in line with the WHO. However, there are weaknesses in some sections. If those are revised, the act will be more effective."

Toufiq Maruf, president of BHRF, said, "The BHRF has been working consistently on the importance of public health. Members of this forum regularly report on tobacco control."