UNB, Dhaka :
At least 43 percent of the population above 15 years of age used tobacco in Bangladesh last year and tobacco consumption caused as many as 1.6 lakh deaths in the county in 2016.
Anti-tobacco campaigners at a press conference in the city on Monday said this in reference to the findings of a study done last year by the Washington-based independent population health research center, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
Demanding a hike in tobacco tax, the campaigners also referred to the IHME study -Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 – to note that total economic cost of tobacco use from lost productivity and direct healthcare costs of smoking related illness is Tk. 158.6 billion or 1.4 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP.
Seven organisations jointly held the press brief on ‘A Call to the Public Leaders for Making a Strict Tax Law for Tobacco Products to Decrease the Diseases and Death Caused by Tobacco’ held at National Press Club.
The organisations are Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance (BATA), Bureau of Economic Research of Dhaka University, Bangladesh Cancer Society, Bangladesh Lung Foundation, Doctors for Health and Environment, Women’s Alliance to Tobacco Control and Work for Better Bangladesh.
The speakers said consumption of tobacco products is the first step of drug consumption while a great portion of new tobacco users are young. So it is high time to stop them from using tobacco, they raised alert.
At least 43 percent of the population above 15 years of age used tobacco in Bangladesh last year and tobacco consumption caused as many as 1.6 lakh deaths in the county in 2016.
Anti-tobacco campaigners at a press conference in the city on Monday said this in reference to the findings of a study done last year by the Washington-based independent population health research center, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
Demanding a hike in tobacco tax, the campaigners also referred to the IHME study -Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 – to note that total economic cost of tobacco use from lost productivity and direct healthcare costs of smoking related illness is Tk. 158.6 billion or 1.4 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP.
Seven organisations jointly held the press brief on ‘A Call to the Public Leaders for Making a Strict Tax Law for Tobacco Products to Decrease the Diseases and Death Caused by Tobacco’ held at National Press Club.
The organisations are Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance (BATA), Bureau of Economic Research of Dhaka University, Bangladesh Cancer Society, Bangladesh Lung Foundation, Doctors for Health and Environment, Women’s Alliance to Tobacco Control and Work for Better Bangladesh.
The speakers said consumption of tobacco products is the first step of drug consumption while a great portion of new tobacco users are young. So it is high time to stop them from using tobacco, they raised alert.
