Speakers for introduction of health warning with pix on tobacco products
Dhaka, Jul 22 (UNB) - Speakers at a discussion today (Thursday) stressed the introduction of health warning message with picture on tobacco made products.
Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh (CAB) organized the meeting at a hotel in city’s Topkhana road.
UNB chairman Amanullah Khan and Moslem Ali Khan, Ambassador of Goodwill of Lions Club International, among others, spoke at the meeting chaired by CAB president Kazi Faruq.
Taking part in the discussion, the speakers said that most of the tobacco users of the country are illiterate so the written warning is beyond their comprehension and fails to make them aware about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
They said the introduction of pictorial warning, as in vogue in many developed countries, can only be effective to make people here conscious about the hazards of using tobacco and tobacco products.
A seven-point recommendation was made in the meeting. These include involving women in the movement against tobacco, use of seal with the warning ‘Smoking is harmful for Health’ in all the textbooks published by the Ministry of Education, use of the same kind of seal in doctors’ prescription and use of pictorial warnings against tobacco use in cinema halls.
In his deliberations at the meeting, UNB chairman Amanullah Khan, also the founder president of CAT (Coalition Against Tobacco), emphasized that since the majority of smokers and other tobacco
product users in Bangladesh are illiterate, uneducated and poor, pictorial warnings will prove highly effective in motivating them to quit the habit.
“Such pictorial warnings will also help prevent spread of tobacco use among them apart from the impact it would have on other sections of the population,” he said.
Khan, also senior Vice-President of ADHUNIK, lamented that whereas a developed and educationally advanced country like Canada introduced warnings through pictures in 2000, “we could not adopt it in our country even though we were the first signatory to the FCTC in 2003” among 170 countries of the world.
“Tobacco is the only addictive drug which is openly and freely available for sale in the market with little or no control in place over the cultivation, manufacture and distribution of tobacco and
tobacco products,” the veteran anti-tobacco campaigner said.
The tobacco companies continued to evade their liability relating to product property disclosures, he added.
He also suggested inclusion of a written warning, along with the pictures, to the effect that there was no safe level of smoking.
The news agency chief also urged both print and electronic media to publish print and broadcast anti-tobacco messages and pictures in public interest and as part of their CSR.
He also appealed to the media to play an advocacy role in exerting pressure on policymakers to adopt necessary legislation and for its enforcement as well as creating awareness among the public against tobacco use.
Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh (CAB) organized the meeting at a hotel in city’s Topkhana road.
UNB chairman Amanullah Khan and Moslem Ali Khan, Ambassador of Goodwill of Lions Club International, among others, spoke at the meeting chaired by CAB president Kazi Faruq.
Taking part in the discussion, the speakers said that most of the tobacco users of the country are illiterate so the written warning is beyond their comprehension and fails to make them aware about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
They said the introduction of pictorial warning, as in vogue in many developed countries, can only be effective to make people here conscious about the hazards of using tobacco and tobacco products.
A seven-point recommendation was made in the meeting. These include involving women in the movement against tobacco, use of seal with the warning ‘Smoking is harmful for Health’ in all the textbooks published by the Ministry of Education, use of the same kind of seal in doctors’ prescription and use of pictorial warnings against tobacco use in cinema halls.
In his deliberations at the meeting, UNB chairman Amanullah Khan, also the founder president of CAT (Coalition Against Tobacco), emphasized that since the majority of smokers and other tobacco
product users in Bangladesh are illiterate, uneducated and poor, pictorial warnings will prove highly effective in motivating them to quit the habit.
“Such pictorial warnings will also help prevent spread of tobacco use among them apart from the impact it would have on other sections of the population,” he said.
Khan, also senior Vice-President of ADHUNIK, lamented that whereas a developed and educationally advanced country like Canada introduced warnings through pictures in 2000, “we could not adopt it in our country even though we were the first signatory to the FCTC in 2003” among 170 countries of the world.
“Tobacco is the only addictive drug which is openly and freely available for sale in the market with little or no control in place over the cultivation, manufacture and distribution of tobacco and
tobacco products,” the veteran anti-tobacco campaigner said.
The tobacco companies continued to evade their liability relating to product property disclosures, he added.
He also suggested inclusion of a written warning, along with the pictures, to the effect that there was no safe level of smoking.
The news agency chief also urged both print and electronic media to publish print and broadcast anti-tobacco messages and pictures in public interest and as part of their CSR.
He also appealed to the media to play an advocacy role in exerting pressure on policymakers to adopt necessary legislation and for its enforcement as well as creating awareness among the public against tobacco use.
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