'Enact tobacco control law soon'

Production and use of tobacco is harmful to health, environment as well as agriculture, they said.

"Tobacco-related illness killed more than 1.83 crore people across the world in five years from October 1999 to May this year," said Forhad Mazhar, managing director of the Ubinig, an NGO.

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The Ubinig organised the discussion in the city in observance of anti-tobacco campaign week. The week marks one year of adoption of the FCTC in Geneva on May 17.

"In the face of growing public opinion against tobacco in the Western countries, leading multi-national tobacco companies turned to underdeveloped countries in Asia and Africa and resorted to aggressive advertisement policies to market this harmful product," Forhad said.

Refuting the government excuse that it earns a significant amount of revenue from tobacco business, he said that according to a World Bank survey, employment will increase by 18.7 percent once tobacco production and its use are stopped.

Chest specialist AKM Ahsan Ali said smoking causes cancer to those who smokes for over a certain period of time. It also causes chronic bronchitis, asthma and other bronchial diseases.

About 38 thousand metric tonnes of tobacco, which constitutes 0.4 percent of world production, is produced in Bangladesh every year, and it contributes less than .01 percent to the gross domestic product, according to the Ubinig.