The main signal from these surveys is smoking habit instead of declining as it should, is sharply on the rise. The smokers are also from the potentially most productive section of the population, the young ones in their teens or twenties

Smoking turning into a far worse health problem

The contents of a report that appeared in the media--sometime ago-- were really alarming. It stated that three recent independent surveys conducted among different locations and among clusters of people in Dhaka city, led to the finding that one out of every four respondents to the surveys happened to be a smoker and that most of them got habituated to smoking when they were between 15-16 years of age. The conclusion of the reports is that the number of tobacco consumers has increased by 7.3 per cent in the last decade. There is no information about quitters but they must have been few.
And yet another discussion meeting jointly organized by one NGO and a district health administration authorities sometime ago, came up with some more ominous revelations. Speakers in it informed that every sixth adult death in Bangladesh nowadays is from tobacco related diseases while 46 million people in the country are consuming various tobacco products.
The main signal from these surveys is smoking habit instead of declining as it should, is sharply on the rise. The smokers are also from the potentially most productive section of the population, the young ones in their teens or twenties. In Bangladesh, tobacco producers with smart indirect publicities and other enticing activities are trying to habituate particularly the younger generation to become smokers. This must have the most undesirable impact on national health and productivity.
The tobacco producers in Bangladesh contend that they pay good revenues to the government and how smoking is related to business from growers' to producers' levels and how the curbing of the same would reduce the level of economic activities. But economists maintain that economic activities that lead to much greater social and health costs than the benefits they generate, are most undesirable.
The government needs to discourage tobacco consumption through penal taxes, greater anti-tobacco publicity and a host of other innovative measures. Some steps towards these ends have been noted in the budget presentation for the present fiscal year. But progressively more of these steps should be taken with resolve. The government introduced some years ago a law that provides for paying penalties for smoking in open places. But the law exists in paper only. Its enforcement is not seen. So both the provisions, penalties and enforcement of this law should be made tougher and rigorous respectively. 

 

The main signal from these surveys is smoking habit instead of declining as it should, is sharply on the rise. The smokers are also from the potentially most productive section of the population, the young ones in their teens or twenties

Smoking turning into a far worse health problem

The contents of a report that appeared in the media--sometime ago-- were really alarming. It stated that three recent independent surveys conducted among different locations and among clusters of people in Dhaka city, led to the finding that one out of every four respondents to the surveys happened to be a smoker and that most of them got habituated to smoking when they were between 15-16 years of age. The conclusion of the reports is that the number of tobacco consumers has increased by 7.3 per cent in the last decade. There is no information about quitters but they must have been few. And yet another discussion meeting jointly organized by one NGO and a district health administration authorities sometime ago, came up with some more ominous revelations. Speakers in it informed that every sixth adult death in Bangladesh nowadays is from tobacco related diseases while 46 million people in the country are consuming various tobacco products. The main signal from these surveys is smoking habit instead of declining as it should, is sharply on the rise. The smokers are also from the potentially most productive section of the population, the young ones in their teens or twenties. In Bangladesh, tobacco producers with smart indirect publicities and other enticing activities are trying to habituate particularly the younger generation to become smokers. This must have the most undesirable impact on national health and productivity. The tobacco producers in Bangladesh contend that they pay good revenues to the government and how smoking is related to business from growers to producers levels and how the curbing of the same would reduce the level of economic activities. But economists maintain that economic activities that lead to much greater social and health costs than the benefits they generate, are most undesirable. The government needs to discourage tobacco consumption through penal taxes, greater anti-tobacco publicity and a host of other innovative measures. Some steps towards these ends have been noted in the budget presentation for the present fiscal year. But progressively more of these steps should be taken with resolve. The government introduced some years ago a law that provides for paying penalties for smoking in open places. But the law exists in paper only. Its enforcement is not seen. So both the provisions, penalties and enforcement of this law should be made tougher and rigorous respectively.