World No-Tobacco Day

May 31 is World No-Tobacco Day. We look at the effects of tobacco use in Bangladesh, control measures and the message of World No-Tobacco Day.

• Bangladesh in one of the world’s poorest countries where nearly 30 percent of the people live on less than one US dollar a day. Yet 20 million are tobacco smokers, five million of whom are women.

• It is estimated that the typical smoker’s daily tobacco expenditure could add 500 calories to the diet of one or two children. Instead of going up in smoke (and carcinogens), the money could be buying desperately needed additional calories and nutrients. If poor people did not smoke potentially 10.5 million fewer people would be malnourished in Bangladesh. Each tobacco user represents one or more people - whether the smoker or his or her spouse or child - who is needlessly going hungry.

• Smoking prevalence is especially high among lower income groups; for example, 80 percent of the country’s rickshaw pullers smoke.

• Nearly 80 percent of all tobacco smokers smoke bidis because they are cheaper. But they also contain more nicotine than cigarettes.

• While the number of men smoking has decreased from 67 to 61 percent, more women than ever are taking to tobacco smoking, their numbers going up from one to 15 percent.

• The Bangladesh Cancer Society estimates that a significant proportion of all cancers in Bangladesh are related to tobacco use, and those cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx account for 30 percent of all cancers. Smoking is also considered to be an important risk factor for male heart disease patients in their 40s and 50s in Bangladesh.

Realising the grave situation, the government has taken several steps to control tobacco use. Health warnings are required on cigarette packages and in advertisements. However, effectiveness is limited because the warning is small and general in nature, the literacy rate is low, and the warning applies only to domestic and legally imported cigarettes, which account for only a minority of the tobacco consumed in the country.

In 1989 tobacco advertising was banned in most media. Although this ban was respected for some time, now advertisements are widespread. Currently, there are no bans on sales to children.

Annually, US $18.5 million is raised from taxes (on legal cigarettes only), accounting for 8% of total government tax revenue. Cigarette tax increases are scheduled, however.

Administrative measures to create smoke-free areas have been implemented in hospitals, public transport, elevators, theatres, cinemas and government premises. Some other workplaces have taken voluntary measures to ensure smoke-free areas.

World No-Tobacco Day is celebrated annually in Bangladesh. Various governmental and non-governmental organizations are actively working to create public awareness through mass media, posters, leaflets, billboards, and seminars. The Consumer Association of Bangladesh is especially active in organizing anti-smoking campaigns over radio and television. High school teachers have to address the hazards of tobacco. The Ministry of Education has provided articles about the hazards of tobacco use for publication in school textbooks. However, in rural Bangladesh, many children do not attend school, and thus do not receive this information.

The World No-Tobacco Day theme for 2003 is tobacco-free films, tobacco-free fashion, Action! World No-Tobacco Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 31. This year World No-Tobacco Day will focus on the role of the fashion and film world in fostering the worldwide tobacco epidemic and urge them to stop being used as vehicles of death and disease. The world of film and fashion cannot be accused of causing cancer. But they do not have to promote a product that does.

WHO is calling on the entertainment industry, in particular the world of films and fashion, to stop promoting a product that kills every second regular user. In November 2002, WHO was joined by medical associations and the Smoke Free Films project at the University of California in San Francisco in its call to the entertainment and fashion industries to ensure that their social responsibility is commensurate with their global influence. In particular, Hollywood and Bollywood were invited to join the worldwide movement to rid films of their tobacco-promoting role.

See www.who.org for more information on No-Tobacco Day