Tag: Bangladesh

Dust-up in Bangladesh
At least 20 ‘tobacco dust factories’ in the Kaliganj and Aditmari upazilas (sub-districts) of Bangladesh have been in operation for years, without official permission and posing ‘serious health hazards’ to thousands of locals, according to a story in The Daily Star.
The factories apparently process the tobacco dust into smokeless tobacco products such as jarda and gul.
The story reported that, on the roadside at Baninagar village in the Kaliganj upazila, five such ‘illegal’ factories have been in operation for the past eight years.
The factories have been set up in the vicinity of homes, a primary school and a village market.
Locals said that though they had complained repeatedly to the appropriate authorities, the factories had not been closed. They did not know why.
A student was quoted as saying that he and his fellow students had to hold their noses while passing the factories on their way to and from school so as to protect themselves from the wretched smell.
And a local shopkeeper said that whenever the dust factories were in operation, he was unable to stay for long at his shop.
But an owner of one of the tobacco dust factories at Baninagar village said tobacco dust did not pollute the environment and that the factories provided employment opportunities for many locals.
March 12, 2019
Tobacco shortfall
Tobacco users’ risk of developing three major types of cancer – lung, larynx and oral – is 109 percent higher than that of non-users, according to a story in The Daily Star citing the results of a recent study.
The Star story went on to say that tobacco users’ risk of developing seven life-threating diseases, including stroke, heart-disease and tuberculosis, was 57 percent higher than that of non-users.
And it said the economic loss caused by the health hazards created by both tobacco usage and second-hand smoke was about Tk305.7 billion (US$3.6 billion) per year.
The study, which involved 10,000 families from all districts of the country, was conducted between July 2017 and April 2018 by the Bangladesh Cancer Society in association with Dhaka University, the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK.
The findings of the study, Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A Health Cost Approach, were unveiled at a conference at the Dhaka Club on February 23.
More than seven million people over the age of 30 are said to suffer from various diseases related to tobacco use.
The productivity of such people is said to be reduced; they are said to spend a substantial amount of money on treatment and to cause the government’s health-sector spending to rise.
The idea that tobacco made a significant contribution to the country’s economy was ‘only a misconception,’ the study said.
The government received TK22.8 billion during the 2017-2018 fiscal year as revenue from the tobacco sector, it said, but the economic loss caused by tobacco use and second-hand smoke was Tk30.6 billion. The latter figure was said not to have taken into effect the environmental hazards caused by tobacco cultivation and smoking.
To close the gap between income and costs, and to make Bangladesh a tobacco-free country by 2040, the study suggested that Government increased the price of tobacco products by imposing higher tax.
February 25, 2019
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.
February 14, 2019
Tobacco a hospital crop
The Civil Surgeon of Bangladesh’s Nilphamari district, Ranjit Kumar Barman, has said that he will take action against the ‘unlawful’ tobacco farming taking place on land belonging to a leprosy hospital, according to a story by EAM Asaduzzaman for The Daily Star.
According to the story, the tobacco was being grown on a ‘large chunk’ of land that is ‘right around the corner’ from the 20-bed hospital compound located in Notkhana village, Nilphamari Sadar upazila (sub-district).
Asaduzzaman said that the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) had seemed to be oblivious to the fact that tobacco was being grown on the land of a hospital owned and operated by the DGHS.
And asked whether the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) could play a role in stopping tobacco farming, DAE deputy director Abul Kashem Azad said it observed World Tobacco-free Day on May 31 every year to create awareness of the harm tobacco caused to human health and the environment.
When asked why the hospital authorities were allowing the tobacco farm on its property, Dr. Khorshed Alam, a consultant at the hospital, said he did not have any authority over the matter and that the civil surgeon’s office had been notified of it.
However, Barman said that before being alerted by Asaduzzaman he had been unaware of the tobacco farming taking place at the government-run Leprosy Hospital in Nilphamari.
February 11, 2019
Leaf growing on the rise
Tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh’s Teesta Irrigation Project area has been increasing in recent times as the Water Development Board has been unable to provide adequate water supplies to rice farmers, according to a story in The Daily Star.
The story said that a number of agronomists, physicians and environmentalists had expressed their concern over the increase in tobacco farming.
But some farmers have little choice. One farmer was quoted as saying that his land was situated along a remote part of a side canal where water hardly reached, and to avoid uncertainty, he had cultivated tobacco, which required the least irrigation.
During a recent visit to villages in the project area, a Star correspondent said he had found that tobacco has been cultivated on thousands of acres of land on the sides of narrow Teesta canals.
And Union Parishad [local government] chairman at Ramnagar [in the Feni District of the Chittagong Division], Mizanur Rahman, was quoted as saying that cultivation of tobacco had been almost doubled in the project area in the past couple of years because many farmers did not get access to irrigation facilities.
January 22, 2019
Tobacco growing increased
New areas in the Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh have been put under tobacco during the current season, according to a story in The Daily Star.
To encourage the cultivation of tobacco on land where previously it was not grown, tobacco companies are said to have given free seeds to farmers in five upazilas (villages) and assured them that their tobacco would be bought from their doors, at fair prices.
The Star said that sources working with tobacco companies in Lalmonirhat had said that 20,000 acres of land had been brought under tobacco cultivation this year, up from 10,000 acres last year.
Aditmari Upazila Agriculture Officer Ali Noor said farmers were not encouraged officially to grow tobacco because it was harmful for the soil, the environment and health.
But because the soil in the district was suitable for tobacco farming, tobacco companies provided support for farmers to grow it.
December 19, 2018
JT acquires Akij Group
The Japan Tobacco Group yesterday completed the acquisition of the tobacco business of the Akij Group in Bangladesh, according to a story posted on the Japan Tobacco Inc website.
The agreement to acquire the business was first announced on August 6.
As part of yesterday’s announcement, JT said the acquisition of Akij’s tobacco business enabled the JT Group to become the second largest tobacco company in Bangladesh.
‘It also further expands the JT Group’s operations in emerging markets, supporting its sustainable profit growth objectives in the mid- to long-term,’ it said.
‘The transaction will not have any material impact on the JT Group’s consolidated performance for the fiscal year 2018.’
In August, JT said the purchase price was estimated at about BDT124.3 billion (USD1,476 million).
“With this investment, we continue to accelerate our expansion in emerging markets that matter, a key component of the JT Group’s growth strategy,” Mutsuo Iwai, executive vice president and president of the Tobacco Business,” was quoted as saying in August. “Akij’s substantial market share places us straight at the number two position in Bangladesh, which will expand our quality top-line growth. This transaction will also support our sustainable profit growth objectives in the mid- to long-term.”
JT said that Akij held about a 20 percent share of the cigarette market in Bangladesh, the eighth largest cigarette market with annual volumes exceeding 86 billion units and volume growth of about two percent year-on-year. ‘This transaction will add around 17 billion units to the JT Group’s overall volume,’ JT said in a note posted on its website in August. ‘Akij currently occupies the number two position in both the value and base segments, together covering up to 90 percent of Bangladesh’s cigarette market, with brands such as Navy and Sheikh respectively.’
“Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world with a pro-business mindset, which is why we are keen to expand our presence in the country,” said Eddy Pirard, Japan Tobacco International’s president and CEO. “The tobacco business of Akij is profitable, has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and a strong distribution network and workforce. With our strong track record of integration, we can accelerate operational efficiencies and introduce some of our Global Flagship Brands alongside Akij’s well-established portfolio.”
November 30, 2018
Support for leaf export levy
Some anti-tobacco campaigners and economists in Bangladesh have said that the withdrawal of a 25 percent customs duty on leaf-tobacco exports would encourage growers to cultivate more tobacco, despite the health and environmental hazards the crop poses, according to a story in The Dhaka Tribune.
In his recent budget speech, Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith said he had proposed the withdrawal of the customs duty in order ‘to reduce domestic consumption by encouraging exports’.
However, anti-tobacco campaigners and economists condemned the move, expressing fears that farmers would put more focus on tobacco cultivation and eschew other crops if the customs duty were removed.
“When Bangladesh is supposed to be reducing the production of tobacco, it is giving incentives to increase production by withdrawing duties on exports instead,” Dr. M Asaduzzaman, distinguished fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, reportedly told the Tribune.
If the customs duty were withdrawn, farmers would get better prices and would be encouraged to cultivate more tobacco while shifting away from other crops, he added.
The economist said also that if the government wanted to reduce domestic tobacco consumption, it needed to take stricter measures than incentivizing exports.
Meanwhile, A.B.M. Zubair, executive director of the anti-tobacco NGO, Progga, said Bangladesh’s food security would come under threat if the duty were removed, not only because farmers might shift away from food crops, but also because tobacco cultivation had a negative impact on the fertility of the soil and the environment.
The Tribune reported that, according to a report by the World Health Organization titled Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview, tobacco cultivation is associated with land degradation or desertification in the form of soil erosion, reduced soil fertility and productivity, and the disruption of water cycles.
The report said that cultivation and curing of tobacco were both direct causes of deforestation, because forests were cleared for tobacco plantations and wood was burned to cure the leaves.
Moreover, chemicals used to control a weed commonly found in the tobacco fields of Bangladesh were found to have been polluting aquatic environments and destroying fish supplies, as well as soil organisms needed to maintain soil health.
Farming communities were exposed to health risks caused by the chemical pollution of their environment because tobacco growers used abnormal fertilizers and chemicals to attain higher yields.
June 14, 2018
Commitment questioned
Anti-tobacco campaigners in Bangladesh said yesterday that the Government’s proposed budget for 2018-19 lacked initiatives to realize the prime minister’s commitment to a tobacco-free country by 2040, according to a story in The Daily Star.
In a joint statement, the anti-tobacco organization, Progga, and the Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) said the finance minister in his budget speech had discussed plans to ensure a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2041. ‘Ironically, the budget he has proposed bears no sign of that intention,’ the statement said.
The minister had talked about bringing down the total number of price slabs but had kept the existing four-price-slab system intact in the proposed budget.
The government had left the prices of packs of 10 ‘top-shelf’ cigarettes untouched at Tk101 for three consecutive years, including in the proposed budget for 2018-19.
This reflected a blatant disregard for public health on the policymakers’ part because cigarettes were getting cheaper each year, given the increase in per capita national income during the past three years.
In the proposed budget, the price of a pack of 10 high-tier cigarettes would increase from Tk70 to Tk75; the price of a pack of 10 medium-tier cigarettes would increase from Tk45 to Tk48; and the price of a pack of 10 low-tier cigarettes would increase from Tk27 to Tk32. The price of 25 non-filtered bidis would remain unchanged at Tk12.5.
June 11, 2018
Rangpur plantings down
The amount of land planted to tobacco in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh is this season down by about 13 percent on that of the previous season, according to a story in The Daily Star. And it is down by about 69 percent on that of the 2012-13 season, when a modern record was set.
The Star report said that the fall in plantings had come about as farmers had realized the bad impact that tobacco was having on their health and that of consumers.
The senior agriculture officer at the Rangpur Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Sajidur Rahman, was reported to have said that about 1,388 ha of land had been planted to tobacco in Rangpur during the 2017-18 cropping season, down from 1,595 ha in 2016-17.
About 4,500 ha had been planted to tobacco in Rangpur during the 2012-13 season, which was the highest ever in the district in recent years.
But, after that, plantings had started to drop. During the 2013-14 season, 2,522 ha was planted to tobacco, while by 2014-15, plantings had fallen to 2,130 ha.
March 12, 2018