Delay in amendments to strengthen the tobacco control act will only play a role in increasing the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases in the country, said experts.
The experts came up with the statement while speaking at a journalists’ workshop titled “Tobacco Control Law Amendment: Progress, Barriers, and Way Forward” arranged by anti-tobacco organisation PROGGA and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) at the conference room of Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) in the capital on Tuesday.
The experts also urged the government to finalise the amendment of the tobacco control act as early as possible in a bid to protect public health and save lives from diseases caused by consumption of tobacco and tobacco products like bidi and cigarettes.

Some 30 journalists from print, television, and online media attended the workshop.
The experts also informed us that with approval from the Cabinet, the amendment process will get one step closer to finalisation.
The draft amendment includes proposals such as the elimination of designated smoking areas (DSAs), banning so-called corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes of tobacco companies, banning the display of tobacco products at points-of-sale, banning the sale of loose sticks, and also banning e-cigarettes and other vaping products.

The draft of the latest tobacco control law amendment, prepared by the Health Services Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is based on global best practices.
The experts further said that despite incessant interference from the tobacco industry, the prevalence of tobacco use is in decline all over the world.
 According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in every three adults in the world used to be tobacco users in 2000. In 2022, the number became one in every five adults.