Bangladesh goes up in cigarette pack warning rating

Bangladesh has witnessed a quantum leap in the global report on pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 Nov 2016, 04:58 PM
Updated : 10 Nov 2016, 04:58 PM

The Canadian Cancer Society report ranked Bangladesh 57. The ranking was 110 in the last report in 2014.

The jump followed the recent introduction of pictorial health warnings covering 50 percent of the tobacco pack.

Nepal and Vanuatu jointly stood first in the ranking as both countries have implemented graphical health warnings covering 90 percent space of tobacco packets.

India and Thailand were ranked third jointly as they have implemented 85 percent pictorial warnings on tobacco packets.

The report ranked 205 countries, with 152 of them implementing the Health Warning (HW) on tobacco packs. Besides, 105 of them have made Graphical Health Warning (GHW) implementation mandatory on tobacco packets.

The anti-tobacco group Progga said Bangladesh had stepped ahead in terms of the overall scene but it yet had a long way to go compared with countries like Nepal, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh made graphic health warning implementation, like colored image and warning on damage caused by tobacco use, compulsory through covering 50 percent space of tobacco packets since March 19 in 2016. 

“However, the implementation scene remains largely poor,” Progga said in a statement. 

A recent study reveals that 75 percent of tobacco packets come with no pictorial health warnings on them.

Matthew Myers, President of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said “remarkable” progress had been made around the world to ensure that the public was aware of the deadly truth about tobacco use – the world’s leading cause of preventable death.

“More than half of the world’s population now sees warnings on tobacco products that accurately portray the deadly consequences of tobacco use,” he said. 

“Glossy images and appealing designs are being replaced by pictures of diseased lungs or even plain, drab packaging in more and more countries”.

“The report shows outstanding progress – and sends a strong message to countries around the world that the time to take strong action to reduce tobacco’s deadly toll is now,” he said, commenting on the global report.