e-News® | The NEWS Company…Dhaka, Sept. 05, 2015 : The government is all set to tighten its grip on the use of tobacco as it is going to make the tobacco or cigarette companies to display graphical warnings on the packets of their products from March 2016.
Graphical warnings on cigarette boxes are common throughout the world to discourage tobacco consumers from using it. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) expert, the global health body has already provided the government with necessary help in this regard, including a draft of the warning sign. “We’ve already handed over all the necessary documents in this regard to the government and as far as I can say, the graphic warning is coming in March 2016,” said Dr Syed Mahfuzul Huq, technical officer (Tobacco Control) for NCD Prevention and Health Promotion of WHO Bangladesh.
The anti-tobacco campaigner in an interview with BSS ahead of the 68th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, which is going to be held in Dili, Timor-Leste from September 7 to 11, said the risk of non-communicable disease (NCD) like diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is on the rise in Bangladesh, and one of the reasons behind this is tobacco consumption.
“Globally, tobacco is a threat to public health as it causes a couple of NCDs. Tobacco is the main cause behind all the deadly NCDs like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and COPD. Now experts are saying that it also causes diabetes. If you can control tobacco, you will be able to control the risk of these diseases. So from public health perspective, tobacco control is very important,” he added. Highlighting Bangladesh’s fight in this battle against tobacco, Dr Huq said the WHO formulated the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003, and Bangladesh has signed and ratified it.
“Because of tobacco cultivation, our food security suffers, our environment suffers. While processing the tobacco, the workers get affected as well. So tobacco control is essential for public interest,” Dr Huq opined. But the WHO expert also said there is light at the end of the tunnel because in Bangladesh awareness has increased immensely in the last 10 years since 2005. As a result, prevalence in tobacco consumption is falling although the total number of tobacco users is increasing together with the population.
BSS