BANGLADESH scored 72 out of 100 in the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021 — a four-point downgrade from the previous year’s performance in measuring the tobacco industry’s influence. According to the index, the higher a country scores, the worse off it is in controlling industry interference. Bangladesh’s score is the highest among six South Asian nations included in this year’s index. As part of the global index, the “Bangladesh Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021” was published at a programme jointly organised by anti-tobacco platforms. The global report evaluates governments’ positions and steps taken against tobacco industry interference, in line with the Article 5.3 guidelines of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
The study found that Bangladesh has experienced an increase in tobacco industry interference during the study period from January 2020 to March 2021. The period also witnessed a recurrence of the local tobacco industry’s attempt to interfere and exert influence in policy making. The report observed that amid the pandemic, the industries ministry abated two transnational tobacco companies from the obligations of nationwide lockdown and continued production through a government order. Meanwhile, a local tobacco company was allowed by Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority to establish a cigarette and tobacco processing plant in Ishwardi Export Processing Zone, where the company would enjoy “tax exemption and other lucrative facilities”.
Tobacco killed nearly 126,000 people in Bangladesh in 2018, accounting for 13.5% of all deaths in the country. There are currently about 1.5 million adults suffering from tobacco-attributable illness in the country. More than 61,000 children (below age 15) are suffering from diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoke. Compared to never users, tobacco users have a 57% higher risk of developing a tobacco-related disease such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, COPD, or lung cancer, and a 19% higher risk of tobacco-related cancer. To improve the situation against this backdrop, the social institutions should act as a pressure group upon the smokers within a family, while social and behaviour change campaigns can slowly and surely help change the smoking behaviour.
