A webinar titled “Tobacco use during covid-19 in Bangladesh” was jointly organised by ARK Foundation, Bangladesh and ARCED Foundation on Thursday.
The session was chaired by Dr Rumana Huque, Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka and Executive Director, ARK Foundation.
The keynote presentation was delivered by Sabuj Kanti Mistry, Scientia PhD scholar, University of New South Wales, Australia.
The esteemed panelists of the session were Nasiruddin Ahmed, former chairman of National Board of Revenue- NBR, Advocate Mahbubul Alam Tahin, Secretary at Center for Law and Policy Affairs- CLPA, and Dr. Muhammad Aziz Rahman, Associate Professor of Public Health, Federation University, Australia.
ARM Mehrab Ali, Executive Director, ARCED Foundation convened the session, says a press release.
Mr Mistry highlighted the findings from a recently published research conducted by ARCED Foundation on tobacco use patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic and their correlates among older adults in Bangladesh.
He said that people who are above 60 years and use tobacco are more vulnerable to Covid than the younger population.
Sabuj Kanti Mistry further said that almost 16 per cent of the current tobacco users have increased their usage level during the pandemic.
“The study has found that this increase in tobacco use has been triggered by worsened mental health conditions due to the growing pandemic,” said Mr. Mistry.
He also said that the study has found prolonged lockdowns, communication lapses, and self-isolation have increased people’s levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, which has resulted in an increase in tobacco use.
Advocate Syed Mahbubul Alam stressed increasing taxes on all tobacco products.
He said that prices of all forms of tobacco have to be increased to discourage people from smoking during the pandemic.
Mr Alam also mentioned that during the pandemic a significant rise in the price of necessary goods has been noticed but there was no change in prices of tobacco consuming goods.
“We also need to conduct widespread awareness activities focusing on the harmful health effects of Covid-19 among tobacco users,” he opined.
Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman opined that digital technology could be a strong tool for inducing tobacco cessation.
“Social media platforms should be efficiently used as a tool to spread awareness and discourage people from using tobacco”, said Dr Rahman.
He advised to increase access to free/low-cost pharmacotherapy and offer behavioural counselling.
The webinar was also attended by researchers, activists, and organisers from various networks including WBB Trust, Bangladesh Network for Tobacco Tax Policy, Bangladesh Anti Tobacco Alliance, etc.
They expressed their opinion on tobacco control as well.