Public Health on Top

Deaths caused by tobacco products are preventable. These types of deaths are not expected at all by anyone. But the tobacco industries are selling these deaths by promoting tobacco products regularly. According to the WHO report (2004), 57,000 people die with tobacco-related diseases per year in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh had enacted the law ‘Smoking and Tobacco Products Usages (Control)’ in 2005 which has been amended in 2013 to make it more effective considering the current context of public health safety. This law is a safeguard to public health, but the Tobacco industry played numerous obstructive roles to prevent the amendment process of the law in different stages, and in some cases have become successful as well. After the passing of the law, tobacco companies are interfering to obstruct the Rules formation passage for the law in different manners. It should be considered that tobacco interference will last till the tobacco business goes on. Unveiling the cover of tobacco industries’ should be kept as an essential and constant part of tobacco control activities. Tobacco Industry Watch BD will be a strong mouthpiece in discrediting the tobacco industries’ by unveiling their ill tactics that hamper the public health.

Analysis of the media monitoring data and observations of Tobacco Industry Watch BD team of PROGGA has found that the Tobacco industries are now (January 2013) operating different aggressive activities. Inspiring tobacco farming by providing different types of incentives and agri-inputs to the farmers ( like-providing fertilizers, seeds, pesticides etc.), entrapping by advanced loan for growing tobacco for years, tobacco plantation expansion in reserved forest and river banks, inclusion of two fresh districts of northern part of the country (Nilphamary and Lalmonirhat) for tobacco cultivaion, contractual finance to the retailers for decorating their shops by displaying cigarette packets, influencing the government to delay in Rules formulation, using media to produce fabricated reports to dump Rules formulation process, lobbying to the higher authority to setback pictorial warning on tobacco products’ packets to 18 months than 6 six, avoiding tax worth Tk 1924 crore by declaration of two medium price slab brand cigarettes to lower price slab creating negative record in the history of Bangladesh etc. are noteworthy. This edition entirely occupies all the evil strategies of death-selling by tobacco industries in the country.

The more the tobacco companies grow their business, the more the death rate will get higher. The unwelcomed deaths should be prevented. The right enforcement of the tobacco control act is the best solution. Besides, tobacco farming policies should be formulated to check the farming along with the active participation of the policymakers to control tobacco companies’ activities. When the steps are taken and executed, the farmers will be released from the hooks set by the tobacco makers and tobacco plantations will be controlled. Tobacco advertisements will be stopped and the succeeding souls will be free of passive smoking, and overall the public health will be secured. Everyone is waiting for this to happen.