‘BD makes progress in tobacco control’

FE Report | Published: March 02, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Bangladesh made significant progress in tobacco control during the last one decade by taking effective steps and involving media in the process, said a press release.
The advocacy organisation, Progga, issued the press release with the success and challenges in tobacco control on the occasion of celebrating the 10th anniversary of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of World Health Organi-sation (WHO) on Sunday.
Bangladesh is the first signatory to the FCTC. It signed the international treaty in 2003. It is the world's first treaty devoted to improving public health.
After the signing of the treaty, the tobacco control issue in mass media is progressing rapidly, the press release said.
According to the media monitoring data of Progga, the number of anti-tobacco media pieces was 2,483 in 2011-12. It rose to 4,472 in 2013-14.
"On the other hand, anti-tobacco community of Bangladesh has got significant victory against multinational tobacco industry by stopping their ill activities (eg promotion of new brands through concerts with university students to make youth tobacco addict)," Progga said.
Although Bangladesh has formulated a tobacco control law following the FCTC, the law is not fully compliant with the FCTC, it said.
"There is no enforceable section in the law to reduce the supply of tobacco," it said.
Only a section has been added in the law and it says: "The government shall make necessary guidelines to promote for discouragement of producing and using tobacco products, and discouragement to set up industry of tobacco and tobacco related products, discouragement for producing tobacco related produce and farming," it added.
But, still no steps have been taken to implement the section though the country is obliged to adopt measures relating to the reduction of supply of tobacco, the Progga said.
Particularly, in line with the article 17 and 18 of FCTC, the country is liable to provide support for economically viable alternative activities to growers, workers, and to take measures for protecting the environment and the health of persons related with tobacco cultivation.
The biggest obstacle to progress is the tobacco industry, which wields tremendous political influence to fight tobacco control policies and addict new customers.