A.F. Hassan Ariff, adviser for the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry and the Land Ministry, said he will give full support behind the Health Ministry's initiative to amend and strengthen the existing tobacco control law.
The adviser expressed his will during meeting with a delegation from research and advocacy organisation PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) on Wednesday.
In the meeting, they told the adviser that a smoke-free environment facilitates tourism. Designated smoking areas (DSAs) at hotels and restaurants prevent authorities from ensuring totally smoke-free environment for non-smokers.
They also said that as a person enters or exits, cigarette smoke leaks from smoking zones and makes all patrons, including women and children, inhale secondhand smoke. Hospitality workers also fall victim to passive smoking while providing service.
Against this backdrop, it is a must to ban DSAs by amending tobacco control law, the delegation said.
It was also informed that reducing tobacco use is a key part of the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by one third by 2030. However, the high prevalence of tobacco use works as a major impediment to achieving such a goal.
The delegation said that currently, 35.3 percent of all Bangladeshi adults use tobacco products. Tobacco claims nearly 161,000 lives each year in Bangladesh.
They told the adviser that the financial loss incurred from tobacco-related deaths and diseases is much higher than the revenue earned from the tobacco sector,.
This has prompted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) into taking initiative to amend and strengthen the existing tobacco control law.
After thorough consultation with civil society leaders and other stakeholders, a number of proposals, including the elimination of DSAs, have been included in the draft amendment.
The delegation attending the meeting included Shankar Maitra, director (News and Current Affairs) of Channel S; Mortuza Haider Liton, ATMA convener; Nadira Kiron and Mizan Chowdhury, both co-convener of ATMA; ABM Zubair, executive director of PROGGA, and Md. Hasan Shahriar, head of programs of PROGGA.
