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[Work for a Better Bangladesh]

Call to enact tobacco Control Law
The independent, Saturday 1, 2003


A total of 118 Physicians yesterday urged the government to enact tobacco control law immediately aiming to protect public health. 

In a joint-statement the physicians under the banner of Madok Drabya-O-Nesha birodhi Council (Manobik) also called for imposing band on all kinds of advertisements of cigarettes on the mass media. As the demand of tobacco products in dwindling in the developed countries, multinational drug and tobacco companies have shifted their attention to the poor countries in a bid to occupy market says the statement.

Formulating the anti-tobacco act in Bangladesh and its effective enforcement is a demand of the day as many developed nations have already framed such an act, the statement said. 

The World Health Organisation is going to strike a deal on Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) soon to protect world people from the detrimental effects o tobacco and tobacco related items.   According to physicians, smoks of cigarettes contain over 4,000 toxic elements, including Carbon monoxide, methanol, DDT, tar, naphthalene, Benzopyrin and cyanide. 


These also harmful chemicals are responsible for 50 percent of lung cancer incidence in Bangladesh,they said. 

Many developed countries, including Canada, Australia and Brazil have made it mandatory for the tobacco companies to publish cautionary pictures of drug-related diseases on the packets of cigarettes said the statement, adding Bangladesh should also replicate this method.    

FWD: Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin 

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