Consumption down

Tobacco consumption in Bangladesh decreased by 18.5 percent during the eight years till the end of 2017, but the rate of decline is not enough to meet the country’s goal of being smoke free by 2040, according to a story in The Daily Star quoting anti-tobacco activists.

Government initiatives, such as the imposition of graphic health warnings on tobacco packages, had caused the decline, said Hasan Shahriar, the co-ordinator of Progga, during a seminar in Dhaka yesterday.

Progotir Jonno Gyan (PROGGA) and the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) organized the seminar at the Jatiya Press Club to discuss the tobacco-consumption data revealed by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) last year.

The incidence of tobacco consumption among people more than 15 years of age was said to have fallen from 43.3 percent in 2009 to 35.3 percent in 2017.

Exposure to second-hand smoke in the home had declined from 54.9 percent in 2009 to 39.0 percent in 2017.

And exposure had declined also in public places: from 79.7 percent to 49.7 percent in restaurants; from 62.2 percent to 42.7 percent in indoor areas of the work place; from 53.6 percent to 44.0 percent on public transport, and from 23.8 percent to 12.7 percent in health care facilities.