Staff Reporter :
Speakers at a city workshop suggested taking of strong measures immediately to reduce tobacco use for achieving the Prime Minister’s declaration for a tobacco free Bangladesh by 2040.
They said that a strong tobacco control law and its effective implementations are highly required in this regard following the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
So far, no concrete steps have been visible in spite of the words of the Prime Minister at the closing ceremony of the South Asian Speaker’s Summit in 2016 to amend tobacco control law in accordance to FCTC. The existing tobacco control could not be effective still, the speakers stated.
Research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), together with Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA), and supported by Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), organized the workshop for journalists underscoring the necessity to amendment of tobacco control law and needful actions by mass media on Thursday at the Shaheed Dr. Shamsul Alam Khan Auditorium of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Bhaban in the capital.
A group of journalists hailing from print, electronic and online media houses participated in the workshop.
Former Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Bangladesh Country Lead of Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) Muhammad Ruhul Quddus; along with Team Leader of Tobacco Control Project from PROGGA Hasan Shahriar presented keynote speeches addressing the participating journalists at the workshop.
Grants Manager M A Salam and Program Officer Ataur Rahman of CTFK Bangladesh Team shared the current update on the amendment process of the tobacco control law.
Joint Editor of Bangladesh Pratidin Abu Taher; Convener of ATMA Liton Haider; Co-conveners Nadira Kiron and Mizan Chowdhury; and Executive Director of PROGGA ABM Zubair discussed on the needful actions by mass media segment at the workshop.
Proposals were placed in the workshop on the matter to the amendment of tobacco control law.
Ruhul Quddus, stressing the urgency of law amendment at the workshop, saying, “The existing pace of tobacco use reduction is not remarkable enough to attain a tobacco free Bangladesh by 2040. The existing law falls short in reducing tobacco use due to lack of strong prohibitions mentioned in the FCTC that include provision of designated smoking zone (DSA) in public places and transports, display of tobacco products at points-of-sale, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.”
Speakers at a city workshop suggested taking of strong measures immediately to reduce tobacco use for achieving the Prime Minister’s declaration for a tobacco free Bangladesh by 2040.
They said that a strong tobacco control law and its effective implementations are highly required in this regard following the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
So far, no concrete steps have been visible in spite of the words of the Prime Minister at the closing ceremony of the South Asian Speaker’s Summit in 2016 to amend tobacco control law in accordance to FCTC. The existing tobacco control could not be effective still, the speakers stated.
Research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), together with Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA), and supported by Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), organized the workshop for journalists underscoring the necessity to amendment of tobacco control law and needful actions by mass media on Thursday at the Shaheed Dr. Shamsul Alam Khan Auditorium of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Bhaban in the capital.
A group of journalists hailing from print, electronic and online media houses participated in the workshop.
Former Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Bangladesh Country Lead of Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) Muhammad Ruhul Quddus; along with Team Leader of Tobacco Control Project from PROGGA Hasan Shahriar presented keynote speeches addressing the participating journalists at the workshop.
Grants Manager M A Salam and Program Officer Ataur Rahman of CTFK Bangladesh Team shared the current update on the amendment process of the tobacco control law.
Joint Editor of Bangladesh Pratidin Abu Taher; Convener of ATMA Liton Haider; Co-conveners Nadira Kiron and Mizan Chowdhury; and Executive Director of PROGGA ABM Zubair discussed on the needful actions by mass media segment at the workshop.
Proposals were placed in the workshop on the matter to the amendment of tobacco control law.
Ruhul Quddus, stressing the urgency of law amendment at the workshop, saying, “The existing pace of tobacco use reduction is not remarkable enough to attain a tobacco free Bangladesh by 2040. The existing law falls short in reducing tobacco use due to lack of strong prohibitions mentioned in the FCTC that include provision of designated smoking zone (DSA) in public places and transports, display of tobacco products at points-of-sale, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.”
