Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a workshop called upon teachers to raise awareness on the negative effects of tobacco products for building a tobacco free country.

Tobacco is harmful to human health, economy and environment. It is urgently needed to combat it for the sake of our national interest. Being in respectful opposition, the teachers can raise awareness by motivating people, including students, for quitting tobacco products, they said.

Teachers’ role would be helpful in making a tobacco-free country, they said this while addressing the workshop ‘on the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco products and ways to combat it’ at Palli Sree NGO hall at Balubari in Sadar upazila of Dinajpur district on Saturday. .

Bangladesh Blind Mission (BBM), an NGO working on health and disability issues, organized the event to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco products.

Teachers of different schools and college of Dinajpur district participated in the workshop. Speakers at the workshop gave various recommendations to combat tobacco products.

The recommendations are: Smoking in open places should be strictly prohibited; ensuring proper application of rules and regulations regarding production of tobacco products and its sale and buying; counseling to make children and family members aware of the dangers of smoking; introducing reward system to encourage smoking cessation; imposing high tax on tobacco products; arranging regular campaign involving the mass media to increase awareness about tobacco.

The recommendations also include prohibition of sale of tobacco products in the area adjacent to the educational institutions; to increase awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco among students; encouraging young generation in anti-tobacco movement through social media campaign; introducing licensing system and imposing strict regulations regarding the sale of tobacco products.

Khandaker Abdul Islam, Administration and Finance Manager of BBM, presided over the workshop..

Nationally renowned development consultant Subhashish Chandra Mahant conducted the event, while senior lecturer Chandana Roy and Tareque Mahmood, project officer of BBM, jointly moderated it.

About 27 teachers from different educational institutions attended the workshop. They pledged to carry out anti-tobacco campaign in their respective institutions.

In their speeches, officials of BBM assured of arranging more such programmes in large scale in the country in the days to come.

Citing data of 2022 of World Health Organization (WHO), the event was told that smoking is prevalent among 28.6% adult people in Bangladesh. Among the people, 47.7% is males and 8.7% is females. According to a data of 2021, about 1.60 lakh people die of smoking-related diseases in Bangladesh every year.