Tobacco cultivation will decrease if tobacco use decreases
DESPITE more tax on cigarettes being slapped every year in the budget, it is disconcerting to note that smoking is not reducing as expected with an increase in the sale of cigarettes. It was thought that the statutory warning on the cigarette packs that smoking is dangerous for health will have a tremendous discouraging impact on the smokers, but in reality this has not been the case, but the warning must be there.
As smoking is increasing, along with it tobacco cultivation is also increasing. The anti-tobacco organisations are of the opinion that since the rate at which cigarettes are taxed does not discourage the smokers to quit the dangerous habit. They suggested, and rightly at that, a planned tax increase with public health in mind will reduce tobacco use and increase revenue.
In Bangladesh the government has also banned smoking in public places a long time ago, despite that one can spot smokers smoking away cigarettes in the open making the people around them passive smokers. This means that the kind of strictness that should be imposed is not being done in practice.
As a result of unabated smoking, diseases related to tobacco use are also increasing among people with an increase in the cost of living. When the disease is cancer, it can take one’s life. Yet more tobacco is being cultivated with more people getting addicted to smoking. World No Tobacco Day was observed Wednesday and the theme of the day was apt: ‘Grow food, not tobacco’.
But how can the farmers be encouraged to do that? Of course, it has to be done by reducing smoking. For doing that will protect public health, there is a need to levy specific taxes in line with inflation. It is also very crucial that a national tobacco control policy is formulated soon.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, one and a half million adults in Bangladesh smoke cigarettes while 5.3 million people smoke ‘bidi’. Still, 2.2 million people consume smokeless tobacco. Every year the budget talks about reducing tobacco use and increasing tax on tobacco products than the previous year, but the reality remains the same: use of tobacco in the form of jorda, gul and bidi is increasing, not to mention the cigarettes.
