M Faruque Hossain :
The tobacco companies in Bangladesh are ignoring the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as they are printing the warning pictures in the lower part of the packets.
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organisation.
The FCTC requires the companies to print the images on the upper part of the cigarette’s packets, which even tax stamp cannot cover. But the tobacco companies print the warning pictures in the lower part of the packets where they attract less attention.
At least 80 countries have so far implemented pictorial health warnings in the world including neighbouring India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Bangladesh has recently set this pictorial health warnings mandatory display covering to 50 percent of the front and back sides of the packets.
According to the Tobacco Control Usage (Control) provision 2015, marketing or distribution of tobacco product without displaying the pictorial warning is illegal after March 19, 2016.
In this context, the High Court issued a rule to insert the case in the cause list to hear the petition on November 2, 2016.
A HC bench comprising Justice Kazi Rezaul Haque and Justice JN Dev issued the rule after hearing a petition filed by the Progga, an anti-tobacco organisation on September 8.
Some 57,000 people die of tobacco-related illness every year, and that nearly 300,000 suffer from respiratory diseases in the country.
The tobacco companies in Bangladesh are ignoring the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as they are printing the warning pictures in the lower part of the packets.
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organisation.
The FCTC requires the companies to print the images on the upper part of the cigarette’s packets, which even tax stamp cannot cover. But the tobacco companies print the warning pictures in the lower part of the packets where they attract less attention.
At least 80 countries have so far implemented pictorial health warnings in the world including neighbouring India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Bangladesh has recently set this pictorial health warnings mandatory display covering to 50 percent of the front and back sides of the packets.
According to the Tobacco Control Usage (Control) provision 2015, marketing or distribution of tobacco product without displaying the pictorial warning is illegal after March 19, 2016.
In this context, the High Court issued a rule to insert the case in the cause list to hear the petition on November 2, 2016.
A HC bench comprising Justice Kazi Rezaul Haque and Justice JN Dev issued the rule after hearing a petition filed by the Progga, an anti-tobacco organisation on September 8.
Some 57,000 people die of tobacco-related illness every year, and that nearly 300,000 suffer from respiratory diseases in the country.
