Textile and Jute Minister agrees to strengthen tobacco control law

Textile and Jute Minister advocate Jahangir Kabir Nanak, also the Awami League presidium member, has agreed to strengthen tobacco control law.

He gave his consent after a delegation from ‘Nari Maitree’, a non-profit voluntary national development organisation, met him at his office on Sunday (January 21).

During the discussion, Nari Maitree put emphasis on the significance and demands of the amendments to the Tobacco Control Law.

The key demands include:

1. Complete ban on smoking in all public places, workplaces, and public transport.
2. Prohibition of displaying tobacco products at points of sale.
3. Banning corporate social responsibility activities of tobacco companies.
4. Prohibition of single stick or retail sale of bidi-cigarettes and unwrapped tobacco products.
5. Banning the import and sale of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTP).
6. Increasing the size of pictorial health warnings from 50% to 90% and enforcing stricter rules on packaging, including plain packaging.

The delegation included Shaheen Akter Dolly, the executive director of Nari Maitree; Nasrin Akhter, the Project co-coordinator of the Tobacco Control Project; Mehedi Hasan, an advocacy officer, and Alfi Shahrin, the media and communication officer.

Mentionable, tobacco consumption poses severe health risks. According to the Tobacco Atlas 2018, tobacco-related diseases cause the death of 161,000 people in Bangladesh every year.