Stringent law soon to check tobacco use
Says chief whip
A bill for the amendment of the Tobacco Control Act 2005 would be placed in the next parliamentary session, Chief Whip Vice-Principal Abdus Shahid said yesterday.
Considering that there are some limitations in the law, the amendments will be brought in so that it can work more strongly to control tobacco use, he said.
The Jatiya Sangsad goes into next session on October 20.
The chief whip was addressing a discussion on "Death of 50 lakh people due to tobacco and smoking, and implementation of FCTC" organised by Manas, an anti-drug organisation, at Jatiya Press Club in the city.
Around 57,000 people die every year in Bangladesh from diseases caused by smoking and tobacco, according to data presented at the programme, while another 3.82 lakh suffer from paralysis because of tobacco use.
Quoting the International Tobacco Control (ITC) 2010 survey, Manas founder president Dr Arupratan Choudhury said some 12 lakh Bangladeshis are currently suffering from eight different diseases related to tobacco use.
He said two-thirds of the world's smokers live in 10 countries, and Bangladesh is one of them.
Presenting the keynote paper, Dr Choudhury demanded the existing tobacco act broaden the definition of tobacco products including jorda, gul, and smoke-free tobacco goods and fix the amount of fine at Tk 500 instead of Tk 50.
His other recommendations include taking effective measures to ban advertisement of tobacco and smoking products like cigarette, bidi, jordda, etc, inserting pictorial warning on cigarette packets, imposing restriction on buying and selling of tobacco and smoking by teenagers, and discouraging the cultivation of tobacco.
If the recommendations are implemented, Tk 26,000 crore will be saved annually through the decrease of around 2,500 crore sticks of cigarette and bidi, he said.
Manas secretary general Ilias Kanchan requested the government to impose ban on tobacco cultivation in the country gradually.
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