Strict laws needed for a tobacco-free Bangladesh

Strict tobacco control laws are needed to ensure a tobacco-free Bangladesh declared by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

To achieve this goal, it’s important to have stronger tobacco control laws and effective taxation policies on tobacco products.

Parliamentarians on Thursday made the observation at a discussion meeting titled, ‘Actions for Achieving Tobacco-Free Bangladesh’ Declared by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at the Parliament Members’ Club, held at the National Parliament Building in Dhaka. The meeting was jointly organized by the National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh and the Tobacco-Free Bangladesh Platform.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Convener of Tobacco Free Bangladesh Platform and Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change presided over the meeting.

Professor Sohel Reza Choudhury, Head, Department of Epidemiology and Research, National Heart Foundation Hospital, presented the keynote at the meeting.

In the keynote, he said that there are some gaps in the existing tobacco control law, as a result of which the law has not been able to play a proper role in reducing tobacco use. He pointed out the need for six important amendments to the law.

These include abolishing the provision of ‘smoking zone’ in all public places and public transport, banning the display of tobacco products in shops, banning CSR of tobacco companies, banning the import, production, sale and use of e-cigarettes, increasing the size of the graphical health warning signs to 90 percent on all tobacco products and prohibit the sale of single stick bidi-cigarettes.

At the same time, Professor Sohel Reza Choudhury highlighted the importance of effective taxation to reduce the easy availability of tobacco products.

In his speech, Saber Hossain Chowdhury said that in order to implement a tobacco-free Bangladesh, the availability of tobacco products has to be reduced. Therefore, it is important to impose specific taxes on all types of tobacco products. In addition, to ensure the health protection of nonsmokers, the law should be amended and the provision of keeping ‘smoking areas’ in public places should be repealed.

Among others, Rashed Khan Menon MP, Manjur Hossain MP, Khodeza Nasreen Akhter Hossain MP and Naheed Ezaher Khan MP, Professor Mostafizur Rahman, former director of the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital, Professor Golam Mohiuddin Faruk, Project Director of Bangladesh Cancer Society, Mostafizur Rahman, Lead Policy Advisor Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Bangladesh were present at the meeting.