Public Health on Top

Tholos Foundation, a pro-vaping group, has urged Bangladesh to adopt a vaping-friendly policy to help reduce the harms of tobacco use. The organization is closely associated with Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a tobacco industry-funded and US-based lobby group which, as media reports suggest, has a record of accepting hefty donations from Philip Morris International (PMI) on multiple occasions and campaigning against regulation on the company's products. It should be noted that Tholos Foundation previously sent a letter addressed to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in 2022 where it presented a number of arguments, urging the government to exclude the proposal to ban e-cigarettes and vaping products from the draft amendment of the tobacco control law.

It should be kept in mind that each of the proposals included in the draft amendment is vital and time-fitting. We hope the government will not allow itself to get derailed by such concerted ill tactics of the tobacco industry and finalize the draft amendment at the earliest.