\\\'Tobacco control at crossroads in BD\\\'

US-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) president said Saturday Bangladesh, among the top five countries in tobacco consumption, stands at a 'critical juncture' in controlling it, reports bdnews24.com.
Matthew Myers told the news agency in an exclusive interview that tobacco industries were eyeing Bangladesh market like the other developing countries for their future profit making after rich countries imposed stiff tobacco controls.
"So vigorous implementation of the new (tobacco control) law is truly a matter of life and death for Bangladesh," he said Friday.
The CTFK, being a key recipient of the Bloomberg Philanthropies funds, works actively in Bangladesh for tobacco control.
Myers said tobacco industry lobbies were 'very powerful' in Bangladesh, but the parliament showed it could stand up against them by passing the law last year in April.
But he lamented that it was more than a year that regulations for its implementing the law could not be enacted.
He said the ministry of health has proposed strong regulations while the ministry of law has proposed to somewhat dilute it.
"If the law ministry has its way, millions in Bangladesh will be exposed to passive smoking," he said.
The new law kept the provision of pictorial health warnings covering 50 per cent of the package, banned advertisements in any form and restrict indoor smoking which harms others.
But the industries were lobbying hard to delay regulations, without which a key provision of graphical warning cannot be implemented.
Media reports suggested that industries wrote to government arguing that they would need at least two years time to start using the pictorial warnings in the package.
The CTFK president said in every country tobacco industries come up with similar arguments. "It's just delaying tactics".