A delegation from Jagannath University's Anti-Tobacco Club and Shastho Shurokkha Foundation met with Professor Dr. Md. Sayedur Rahman, Special Assistant to the Health Advisor at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at the Bangladesh Secretariat Building in Dhaka on Thursday. During the meeting, a memorandum was submitted urging the government to enact stronger laws against tobacco companies to safeguard public health, according to a press release.
The memorandum revealed that approximately 35.3% of the adult population in Bangladesh consumes tobacco and tobacco products. Tobacco-related diseases claim nearly 161,000 lives annually in the country (Tobacco Atlas 2020). Moreover, the economic loss due to tobacco consumption, including medical expenses and lost productivity, was estimated at 30,560 crore taka in the 2017-18 fiscal year (Bangladesh Cancer Society, 2018). The memorandum highlighted the alarming consequences of tobacco use and stressed the need to strengthen existing tobacco control laws, enforce them more rigorously, and amend them per World Health Organization guidelines.
It was noted during the meeting that the surcharge received from tobacco companies was insufficient to address the healthcare costs related to tobacco use. Strengthening the tobacco control law, they argued, would not only reduce the prevalence of tobacco-related diseases but also lower the associated healthcare expenses.
The delegation proposed several measures to bring the tobacco control law in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). These included abolishing provisions for designated smoking areas in public places and transport, prohibiting the display of tobacco products at points of sale, and banning corporate social responsibility initiatives by tobacco companies. They also called for banning all emerging tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, increasing the size of health warnings on tobacco packaging from 50% to 90% with pictorial warnings, and prohibiting the sale of single cigarette sticks and open smokeless tobacco products.
Professor Dr. Md. Sayedur Rahman described the death toll from tobacco consumption in Bangladesh as alarmingly high. Despite tobacco taxes generating approximately 22 billion taka annually, studies show that the government spends a far greater sum—30.56 billion taka—on healthcare costs related to tobacco use. This significant disparity underscores the hidden economic burden of tobacco consumption. He affirmed the Ministry of Health’s commitment to strengthening tobacco-control laws and ensuring their effective implementation.
Dr. Nizam Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director of the Shastho Shurokkha Foundation and Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) CSO Steering Committee, stated that tobacco use causes 8 million deaths globally each year, as per WHO data. Of these, 7.1 million result from direct tobacco use, while nearly 900,000 are caused by secondhand smoke. In Bangladesh, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2013 revealed that 6.9% of adolescents aged 13–15 use tobacco, with boys (9.2%) being more likely than girls (2.8%) to engage in tobacco use.
Dr. Ahmed emphasized the urgency of passing stronger tobacco control laws, noting that doing so could prevent 1.6 million premature deaths, deter 1.6 million young people from starting smoking, and encourage 2.3 million adult smokers to quit.
Also present at the meeting were Dr. Md. Shakkor Rahman, Project Manager of the Shastho Shurokkha Foundation, and Md. Masum Billah, President of the Jagannath University Anti-Tobacco Club. The delegation called for immediate action to implement the proposed amendments, stressing the critical need to protect public health and reduce the financial burden of tobacco-related diseases.
