Dhaka: Cigarette and tobacco products silently kill 57 thousand people while cripple some 3-4 lakh others annually in the country, anti-tobacco campaigners said Tuesday, fixing a latest social malaise, stalking, emerging as the most heinous hazard.

They observed drug users create stalking and social disharmony while cigarette is the architect of all sorts of addiction.

The views came from a seminar on ‘Prevention of illicit trade in tobacco products and duty-free sale’ organized by Dhaka Ahsania Mission at BIAM auditorium.

At the function, they claimed the state loses twofold money than its profits from cigarette tax, as tobacco damages human body gravely.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Golam Mohammad Quader as chief guest, M Mostofa Jaman, representative of WHO, and Dr. Arup Ratan Chowdhury attended the seminar as special guest with Kazi Rafiqul Islam, president of Dhaka Ahsania Mission, presiding.

Golam Quader said, “Our constitution discourages the use of cigarette, tobacco and gambling. But, as these are not banned, so the selling of cigarettes and tobaccos is on the run in the country. But some other deadlier drugs like ganja and Phensydil are prohibited in our country.”

If any government increases the tax on drug or tobacco products to raise revenue, it is not pro-people, because these products are hazardous to human life. But government can impose high tax to discourage people from using tobacco products, the minister observed.

“I will shut down duty-free tobacco shops in airports,” GM Quader asserted.

He said sometimes law-enforcing agencies become helpless in preventing the illicit trade in drugs and tobacco products, because they lack required devices and modern equipment to operate against drug dealers. “But if the commoners become more conscious and come together to resist them, only then it would be possible.”

Iqbal Masud claimed that if 3.9% tax were increased on tobacco, then globally 2% consumption would have decreased per year. And governments across the world will make 31.3 billion dollars from it, while low-income countries may earn 18.3 billion dollars.

He came up with the calculation in his research paper on tobacco hazards.

M Mostafa Jaman said according to a WHO research in 2004, 37% people above age 15 use tobacco somehow. At present the percentage has gone up to 46%.

In spite of all the negative motions regarding tobacco use, there is a positive sign also. That is educated sections of society are leaving the habit of tobacco. “But, again in the rural areas, where government initiatives and NGO campaigns are yet to reach, the tobacco companies are dominant with their perilous products over there,” he said.

The government can earn Tk 2,000 crore a year by increasing 6% tax on tobacco and the money can be used for creating jobs for bidi workers, he added.

BDST: 1410 HRS, May 18, 2010
RT/AK/MUA