Staff Correspondent -- About 5.4 million people die every year across the globe due to tobacco consumption and the number will go over 8 million by 2030 if immediate steps are not taken, the World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 said yesterday.
At the launching ceremony of the report at a city hotel, it was also revealed that more than 80 percent of the tobacco victims would die in the developing countries alone by 2030 if tobacco control programme is not augmented by this time.
The experts said that tobacco control is a multi-sectoral issue and it needs inter-ministerial approach to control tobacco consumption in the country.
Though the prevalence of tobacco use among the adults in the country is 36.8 percent, the government's expenditure on tobacco control is only $50,000, they said.
The report outlined the MPOWER package, a set of six key tobacco control measures that include monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco.
This year National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has won the Global Award on the World No Tobacco Day.
WHO representative to Bangladesh Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol handed over the crest to Uzzal Bikash Dutt, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on the occasion.
Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services Dr Abul Faiz, Deputy Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Nurjahan Begum, Ataul Haque Mollah of Ministry of Agriculture, Shafiqul Alam Mehedi, chairman, Bangladesh Tourism Corporation, Mostafa Zaman, national professional officer of WHO, and National Professor Dr Nurul Islam were also present on the occasion.
The speakers highlighted government's different programmes, including ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, enactment of the tobacco control law in 2005 incorporating some of the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and in 2006 framed rules to accompany the law.
The National Strategic Plan of Action for Tobacco Control has been developed and a task force was formed by the government at national, district and upazila levels with the representation of people from administration, police, health services, civil societies and NGOs to monitor the compliance with tobacco control law all over the country.
The government has also increased 60 percent tax on tobacco consumption, they said adding that Bangladesh has done much in controlling tobacco consumption but still there are many things to do as nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in ten countries and Bangladesh is one of these countries.
Source: thedailystar.net
