Heavy taxation on tobacco products demanded

Anti-tobacco activists have stressed on imposing heavy taxation on all tobacco products to discourage consumption of those for saving thousands of human lives annually, reports BSS. They made the observation at a regional meeting of Rangpur regional unit of Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) with assistance of Association for Community Development (ACD) at its Regional Office here on Thursday.

The ATMA member journalists of the print, electronic and online media from Rangpur region participated in the meeting with ATMA member and Kurigram Correspondent of the Daily Star Abdul Wahed in the chair.

Central committee member of ATMA and Rangpur Correspondent of the ATN News and ATN Bangla Mahbubul Islam was the chief guest. Regional committee members of ATMA Liyakat Ali Badal, Rafikul Islam, Kashi Kumar Das, ABS Litan, Merina Lovely, Asaduzzaman Asad, Harun-Ar-Rashid Badal, Sultan Ahmed, Khorshed Alam Sarker, addressed, among others.

Citing latest survey of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Project Coordinator of ACD Ehsanul Haque Emon said around one lakh people are embracing death annually from tobacco-attributable diseases in Bangladesh.