World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day today: Nation loses Tk 2600 crore every year for tobacco use

Mahabubur Rahman Khan and Pankaj Karmakar

The nation will observe World No Tobacco Day-2009 today as elsewhere of the globe with the slogan of 'Tobacco Health Warning', which has been selected by World Health Organisation (WHO).Targeting the smokers to make aware of the terrible effect of smoking experts opined for using cautionary message with picture on cigarette packets covering 50 percent of its entire space aiming at informing smokers about the terrible effect of smoking, as the use of tobacco has reached at the alarming stage across the country. In a survey conducted by WBB Trust, an NGO working for a better Bangladesh, showed that at least 54,000 people died and 3,82,000 became disabled in the country every year and the total loss stands at Tk 2600 core.Another NGO Eminence in its campaign against tobacco says that the prevalence of smoking is 48.3 percent in male aged 10 years old or more and 20.9 percent same age category of female. The rate is even higher, 69 percent, in urban male aged 35-49 years. In Bangladesh around 2 percent of adolescent boys and girls of age 12-14 use smoking tobacco and about 4 percent uses smokeless or chewing tobacco of the same age group.Aiming at reducing the financial loss and to safe guard the lives of people, the tobacco experts have taken stands on designing cigarette packets with warning message with picture, which covered 50 percent of space of the packet.According to the Paragraph 11 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FTC) of WHO, warning massage must be laid on both sides of the cigarette packet, which will cover at least 30 percent to 50 percent space of the packet. Bangladesh has already signed and ratified with the FTC.But in the country the written message does not put enough positive effect on the people because most of the people of the country are illiterate. Furthermore, most of educated people do not pay heed on the written warning message.The survey confirms that warning message with picture will put impact on the people more than 60 percent, which may play a vital role on reducing the numbers of smokers.According to the survey 92.2 percent of the whole smokers of the country see the written warning message on the cigarette packet but this message does not put any positive impact on 74.4 percent of the country's entire smokers and 95.5 percent smokers believe that warning message with picture will certainty put greater impact on the smokers. The main reasons of the less impact of the written warning message are most of the people of the country are illiterate and the message does not contain any lucid information about the danger of smoking.Another survey by WBB Trust titled 'Hungry For Tobacco' showed that the smokers spent 4.5 percent of total expenditure of their families behind purchasing cigarette, which caused suffering from malnutrition of that low income group families.Talking to The New Nation Iqbal Masud, programme officer of Dhaka Ahsania Mission, said, "If warning message with picture is laid on the cigarette packet, it will be effective for the smokers. But the cigarette companies do not want to do this fearing slipping down of cigarette sale. The government should make compulsory for the cigarette companies to paste warning message with picture covering 50 percent space of the packet." He also informed that the government can rehabilitate at least 1 crore people who are suffering from malnutrition by using the Tk 2600 crore, which the government is losing every year.Dr. Suvagata Chowdhury, director of Laboratory Service Department of BARDEM, placed his strong logic on using warning message with picture to discourage the smokers.The United Nations heath agency called on governments on May 29 to require that all tobacco packages include pictures to warn consumers of the ill effects of tobacco use.The call to action by the World Health Organisation (WHO) came on the eve of World No Tobacco Day.