Staff Reporter :
Vandana Shah, South Asian Regional Director of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) and Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) stressed on the necessity of the prevailing anti-tobacco law amendment in Bangladesh for saving thousands life from several fatal disease related with tobacco products.
She give the importance in an interview with The New Nation during her recent visit in Dhaka for attending a research revealing programme on tobacco companies activities here. She said an impetuous anti-tobacco campaign is also necessary to make the country tobacco-free. Vandana Shah said although the per capita income of people has increased in the country, the prices of tobacco products have not been increased accordingly. The difficulties of curbing consumption are attributed to the availability of the product. In this context, the amendment of tobacco law can serve an important role in reducing tobacco consumption. She said Bangladesh is one of the countries with the highest rate of tobacco consumption with 35.3 per cent of the nation’s grown-ups addicted to tobacco products. According to Global Tobacco Atlas 2020, around 1,61,000 people lost their lives to tobacco products consumption in the year. The annual economic expense spent on tobacco amounts to Tk 3,000 billion globally. She asked the government to take some notable measures in this regard. The first one of them should be amended the existing anti-tobacco law. Vandana said, “Even youths are having heart attacks in countries of the sub-continent and 41 per cent of the times it happens due to the consumption of tobacco products.”
