Photo: BSS

DHAKA, Sept 4, 2025 (BSS) - Social Welfare and Women and Children Affairs Adviser Sharmeen S Murshid today underscored the need for amending the Tobacco Control Act.

"It is now a proven fact that tobacco is seriously harmful to health. Just as smokers are victims of this harm, so are those around them as direct and indirect smokers," she said.

The adviser said these in her speech as the chief guest at a seminar titled ‘Urgency of passing the proposed draft Tobacco Control Ordinance 2024 to protect youth, women and children’ organized by Nari Maitree at the Bishwa Sahitya Kendra here.

Sharmeen S. Murshid said, "Young people, women and children are the leaders of the future. And women are the craftsmen who build those leaders."

"One of the conditions for keeping these children, young people and women healthy is to keep them free from the harmful effects of tobacco. For this purpose, there is no alternative to strengthening the Tobacco Control Act," she said.

The advisor also said according to BBS data, 161,000 people die prematurely every year due to the terrible invasion of tobacco while 442 people die every day due to the invasion of tobacco - this is an epidemic. 

The seminar was chaired by Shaheen Akhter Dolly, Executive Director of Nari Maitree, and was attended by Sheikh Momena Moni, Additional Secretary of the Health Services Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Shabnam Mostari, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Childrren Affairs, Md. Akhtaruz Zaman, Director General of the National Tobacco Control Cell of the Health Services, Professor Dr. Golam Mohiuddin Faruk, President of the Bangladesh Cancer Society, among others.