152 MPs recommend amending tobacco control law

A total of 152 Members of Parliament (MPs) have recommended Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam to take initiatives to amend the existing tobacco control law.

They also made recommendations to finalise the draft proposal for preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and public health protection. 

"Bangladesh Parliamentary Forum for Health and Wellbeing" and its secretarial organisation "Shastho Shurokkha Foundation" presented the recommendations of the parliamentarians at the Cabinet Secretary's office on Wednesday (28 September), reads a press release.

The recommendations include banning smoking in public places, imposing a ban on the retail sale of bidis-cigarettes, banning import and manufacture of e-cigarettes, and increasing health warnings on tobacco products, closing the activities of tobacco companies in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and banning the display of tobacco products at the point of sale.

Before this, 41 MPs participated in the conference of parliamentarians titled "Making Tobacco-free Bangladesh in control of non-communicable diseases" held in Cox's Bazar under the initiative of the Bangladesh Parliamentary Forum. 

The recommendations of this declaration have already been included in the new draft of the Tobacco Control law by the Bangladesh Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC). But since the law has not yet been passed, the Bangladesh Parliamentary Forum working to achieve universal health coverage continues to discuss with the parties concerned.