Dinajpur Correspondent

Speakers at an event urged journalists to raise awareness on the negative effects of tobacco products, which are harmful to human health, environment and economy. Journalists have a great scope to create awareness among people across the country about the risks related to tobacco, they said.

The government has set a target to make Bangladesh tobacco free by 2040 considering the extent of tobacco menace to public health, the economy and environment. If journalists constantly play their awareness raising role, it would help achieve the target, they observed.

They made the remarks while addressing the workshop ‘on the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco products and its prevention’ at Palli Sree NGO hall at Balubari in Sadar upazila of Dinajpur district on Sunday.

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. Speakers at the workshop gave various recommendations to combat tobacco.

The recommendations are: counseling patients on tobacco; prohibiting smoking in open spaces; ensuring proper application of rules and regulations regarding production, buying and sale of tobacco products; counseling to make family members aware of the dangers of smoking; introducing reward system to encourage smoking cessation; imposing high tax on tobacco products; proper implementation of relevant laws; and raising awareness among people through different platforms.

Khandaker Abedul Islam, Administration and Finance Manager of BBM, presided over, while nationally renowned development consultant Subhashish Chandra Mahant facilitated the event. Tareque Mahmood, Project Officer of BBM, moderated it.

About 25 journalists participated in the workshop. They pledged to create awareness on tobacco through their activities. Other officials of BBM were also present 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.