An eight-week mass media communication campaign has been launched to support the move of the authorities concerned of Bangladesh to remove the provision ‘Designated Smoking Area (DSA)’ from the existing tobacco control law.
The campaign was launched on Sunday (March 19) calling the policymakers, lawmakers and stakeholders to take steps for implementing the plan to remove the provision of DSA in the interest of saving non-smokers, women and children from health harms of Second Hand Smoking (SHS).
Vital Strategies, a leading global public health organization, launched the campaign in Bangladesh. The Vital Strategies has planned to go on air with about 5000 TV announcements beaming across all major private TV channels from March 19 to May 13 in 2023.
The Vital Strategies in a statement said that they launched the campaign in order to support the government’s current efforts to amend the tobacco control law.
“The message of the campaign is clear. It primarily focuses on 100% smoke-free public places, however though not specifically, it will support as a whole the current law amendment initiative by the government. The campaign will also be supported by Social Media activity on the Stop tobacco Bangladesh Page on Facebook and the corresponding YouTube channel to highlighting the campaign messages about 100% smoke free public places,” says the statement.
The campaign’s primary target audience is Bangladeshi smokers and non-smoker males and females aged 15-60 group as well as the Bangladeshi government officials, lawmakers and policymakers who will be sensitized and pushed forward to make the tobacco control policy comprehensive. Messages are expected to appeal across demographics within this group.
Vital Strategies has been working in partnership with Bangladesh Government and non-government organizations since 2011 on developing and implementing communication strategies that educate people about the health harms of tobacco use and to call upon the government for making a comprehensive tobacco control policy.
Every year, about 161,200 people are killed by tobacco-caused diseases. Over 172,000 children (10-14 years) and about 25m adults (15+ years) keep using tobacco every day. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 67% of all deaths, and tobacco causes about one in every five deaths in the country. The diseases like lung cancer, stroke, heart attack and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) that may happen among smokers due to smoking can also happen among non-smokers for exposure to SHS. Due to SHS, premature or stillbirth and asthma and chronic respiratory problem or sudden infant death may happen.
Prof Dr Golum Mohiuddin Faruque, president of Bangladesh Cancer Society and lead author of The Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A Health Cost Approach in 2018 stated that, the SHS kills 25,000 non-smokers every year, more than 61,000 children get affected in serious diseases that compelled the government to spend 4,130 (Four thousand one hundred and thirty crore) taka for treatment of those affected by SHS.
