Public Health on Top

The multinational British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) has already ramped up its effort to derail the Health Ministry's ongoing initiative to amend the tobacco control law. ON 25 August 2022, BATB sent a letter addressed to the Large Taxpayer Unity (LTU) where the company deplored the initiative as 'impractical and unimplementable' and sought interference from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in this matter. BATB referred to some specific subsections of the proposed amendment, such as, elimination of Designated Smoking Areas (DSAs), outlawing so-called corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs of tobacco companies, banning the sale of loose sticks and also banning e-cigarettes and other vaping products, and claimed that such provisions would threaten the whole tobacco industry. The letter also claimed that the proposed amendment, if passed and enacted accordingly, may lead to a surge in counterfeit cigarettes in the market, causing a massive loss in government revenues.
In reality, it is a well-known trick in tobacco companies' playbook to magnify its revenue contribution and confuse the policymakers. (Page 7). According to a report from American Cancer Society, in the FY 2017-18, Bangladesh has to spend nearly BDT 30,560 crore as medical expenses to treat illness caused by tobacco use, a sum that is considerably larger than the revenue generated by tobacco industry. Tobacco also claims around 161,000 lives each year in Bangladesh.
Since it is impossible to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke while allowing designated smoking areas (DSAs), a total of 67 countries have already eliminated provisions for DSAs. 32 countries, including neighboring India, have already banned e-cigarettes. The sale of loose cigarettes and small-sized affordable packs of cigarettes have been banned by 118 countries. The introduction of licensing to sale tobacco or tobacco products, another major inclusion in the proposed amendment, is also a globally-accepted public health measure, which has already been implemented by countries such as India, US, UK, UAE, Turkey, China, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and many EU countries.
Meanwhile, 17 so-called public health experts have sent letter to the Health Ministry to withdraw its proposed ban on the electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS). The 'experts' who signed in the letter are all involved in different front groups (CoHEAR, GTNF, AHRA etc.), directly financed by tobacco companies. However, none of these so-called experts mentioned such involvement and conflict of interest in the letter. As the growth of e-cigarette sales slowed down, along with declining sales of traditional cigarettes, multinational tobacco companies are now fixated on the largely untapped market of South Asia. So, the letter from these 'experts' are nothing but a manipulation tactic of tobacco companies to protect its future commercial interest.
The Health Ministry has been instructed by the Honorable Prime Minister to amend the tobacco control law, to make it more in line with WHO FCTC and compatible with the vision of building a tobacco-free country by 2040. On the other hand, the government is also committed to decrease the prevalence of tobacco use to 25 percent by 2030, as required by the Target 3A of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is the context that prompted the Health Ministry to amend the tobacco control law. However, like previous instances, tobacco companies are once again planning to create division between the Health Ministry and other ministries on the amendment issue. The government should not succumb to the tobacco industry's manipulation tactics and adopt a whole-of-government approach to ensure the passage and implementation of the amendment.