Stronger Laws Urged to Curb Secondhand Smoke Exposure
A delegation from the research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) met with the Commerce Adviser, Sk. Bashir Uddin, at the Bangladesh Secretariat to discuss strengthening tobacco control measures.
During the meeting on Monday, the PROGGA-ATMA team highlighted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's (MoHFW) initiative to amend laws to eliminate designated smoking areas (DSAs).
They emphasized that achieving a 100% smoke-free environment is impossible if DSAs continue to exist, especially in hotels and restaurants, where smoke leaks expose all patrons, including women and children, to harmful secondhand smoke. Hospitality workers also face health risks from passive smoking.
The delegation also pointed out that Bangladesh has the highest tobacco usage rate in South Asia at 35.3%, surpassing India’s 28.6% and Pakistan’s 19.1% (GATS, 2017).
Tobacco-related deaths, which claim nearly 161,000 lives annually in Bangladesh, pose a significant obstacle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and well-being for all.
They further highlighted that the financial losses due to tobacco-related diseases far exceed the revenue generated from the tobacco industry.
The delegation included Mortuza Haider Liton, ATMA convener; Nadira Kiron, co-convener of ATMA; Md. Shafiqul Islam, Business In-charge of Bangla Tribune; ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA; and Md. Hasan Shahriar, Head of Programs at PROGGA.
