Staff Reporter :
To safeguard public health, Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) demanded immediate amendment to the country’s tobacco control law.
The media personnel alliance has presented its demands on Wednesday in a virtual discussion.
As per the data tobacco claimed around 161,000 lives in Bangladesh in a year and also causes hundreds of thousands of disabilities.
The number of tobacco users still stands at around 40 million which is a matter of grave concern.
The virtual meeting, attended by around 40 members, was hosted by Nadira Kiran, co-convener, ATMA and moderated by ATMA Co-convener Mizan Chowdhury.
A Special Discussion was participated by Sukanta Gupta Alak, Editor, Desh TV. Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Lead Policy Advisor for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), Bangladesh, Mortuza Haider Liton, convener of ATMA, ABM Zubair, Executive Director, PROGGA and Md. Hasan Shahriar, Head of Programme, PROGGA attended the meeting as guest speakers.
During the meeting, ATMA raised the following demands to be included in the tobacco control law- 1. Remove the provision of “designated smoking zone” and ban smoking in all public places, work spaces, and public transports to ensure a comprehensive tobacco free environment; 2. Ban the display of tobacco products at points of sale; 3. Ban ‘corporate social responsibility’ activities of tobacco companies; 4. Ban the sale of single sticks and unpackaged smokeless tobacco; 5. Ban the sale and import of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products; 6. Allow for stricter rules on packaging including increases to the size of graphic health warnings.
