Controlling production and use of tobacco
The farmers
who find cultivation of tobacco profitable have to be convinced that they can utilize their lands in a more profitable and non
hazardous way by cultivating other cash crops including cereals. The Department of Agricultural Extension needs to work on it tenaciously
The government has to become more serious in reducing production and use of tobacco in the country. According to a report in this newspaper yesterday, 4.3 crore people of the country aged above 15 are directly or indirectly using tobacco. At a recent conference on the subject, entitled Tamak Birodhi Nari Jote Conference 2015, it was revealed that 80 per cent of worlds tobacco users live in India and Bangladesh.
On the production side, this harmful plant is now cultivated in 24 districts of the country. The scale of tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh has put the country among the top tobacco-producing countries of the world. Tobacco, either in the form of smoking or its smokeless consumption, greatly endangers human health. A long time smoker has all the chance of dying from cancer, let alone running the risk of various other ailments including the most common breathing problem.
In a recently published New York Times article it was revealed that at present worlds more than half of coronary artery disease patients live in South Asia. And smoking is an independent risk factor of this degenerating lethal disease. As tobacco is greatly used in this region, there is little doubt that smoking has a considerable bearing on the huge number of the heart patients here.
Considering the extent of harm tobacco causes to human health, Bangladesh government indeed took some steps to control its use. Besides the statuary warning on the cigarette packets, it banned smoking in public places. But it is really an irony the law enforcers who are supposed to enforce the ban are often seen carelessly puffing out smokes in the air, making the non-smoker passers-by victims of passive smoking.
Previously one could hardly notice the habit of smoking among the college students. Nowadays, not only the college students, even the tender boys of class nine or ten are quite often spotted surreptitiously puffing cigarettes. Therefore, the guardians of school and college-going children must be very cautious about their wards addiction to tobacco.
There is no argument that production and use of tobacco has to be controlled. The extent of its production and use at present confirms that steps taken so far in this regard were not effective. For shrinking tobacco use the ban on smoking must be fully enforced, besides imposing high tax rates on all tobacco products.
Moreover, the farmers who find cultivation of tobacco profitable have to be convinced that they can utilize their lands in a more profitable and non hazardous way by cultivating other cash crops including cereals. The Department of Agricultural Extension needs to work on it tenaciously.
