Public Health on Top

The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usages (Control) (Amended) Act 2013 has been passed about 16 months ago, although the Rules formulation is not finalized yet. The tobacco industries’ have been successful in using their influence on Law and Health Ministry officials. BAT Bangladesh comprising of their high officials held hour-long unscheduled sudden meeting with Health Minster refusing the media to share the meetings agendas. Such secret meetings are violation of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. They, earlier, had held such meeting with the Law Ministry too. Therefore, it is evidently assumed that the upcoming Rules for the amended TCA will be biased to the tobacco companies. It has been revealed that the pictorial warning is supposed to be implemented after nine months of Rules formulation, but the Law Ministry has returned the Rules formulation to Health Ministry recommending 18 months for implementation of the pictorial warning after finalization of Rules.
On the top of that it has been also revealed that the law ministry could not come to consensus in many recommendations with the health ministry in the recommended rules of formulation. Sources revealed that Health ministry re-sent the draft to Law Ministry for re-vetting by accepting some of the recommendations but not all. Both the ministries are not informing which recommendations they are accepting and which they are discarding. As the rules formulation is not finalized, the actual implementation of the amended TC law is not been reflected at present. Hundreds of people are falling victim to death caused by tobacco epidemic. It is very urgent to finalize the rules formulation by the relevant officials and start implementing the law properly. Public health should be safeguarded from the interference of the death marketers.