World No Tobacco Day 2022 will be observed on Tuesday in the country and elsewhere across the globe highlighting the health and other risks associated with tobacco usage, and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.
To mark the day, various anti-tobacco organizations have chalked out programmes.
This year's theme for the day in Bangladesh is “Tobacco threat to our environment”, an official handout said, reports BSS.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the eve of the day.
In his message, the president described the harmful effects of tobacco on the environment.
Cigarette and biri smoking is one of the reasons for indoor air pollution, he said, adding that tobacco consumption and smoking increase risks for cardiac arrest, stroke, cancer, diabetes, asthma and different non-communicable diseases.
Noting that smoking is called the entrance to the drug abuse, the president said tobacco consumption and smoking push young people towards drug addiction and make them burdens to family and state.
Putting the highest priority on public health, the government formulated the “Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Rule” in 2015 after amending the “Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005”, he said.
Abdul Hamid said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced that tobacco would be eliminated from Bangladesh by 2040. “In this regard, ensuring proper implementation of tobacco control laws and regulations is very important,” he mentioned.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, said that tobacco cultivation, processing and consumption cause severe damage to the environment.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a fully grown-up tree is being cut off for preparing every 300 cigarettes, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said: “On an average, some 200,000 hectres of forest resources are being damaged every year due to tobacco cultivation and tobacco leaf processing.
“An estimated 1,500 million hectares of forests (mainly tropical) have been lost worldwide since the 1970s, contributing to up to 20% of annual greenhouse gas increases.”
To address the tobacco epidemic, the WHO adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), she said.
In light of the FCTC, the “Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005” was amended, the premier said.
The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) incorporating the issues – effective implementation of FCTC and the non-communicable disease control -- by addressing tobacco as a threat to development, she said.
The Awami League government included the matter of tobacco control in the seventh and eighth five-year plans to achieve SDGs, she said, hoping that her government would be able to make a tobacco-free Bangladesh with united efforts of all to build a Sonar Bangla as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.