Bangladesh on WHO’s global tobacco quitting campaign list

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday launched a campaign to help at least 100 million people quit tobacco globally, including Bangladesh.  

Identifying Bangladesh as a high-burden country in terms of tobacco use, the WHO said the focus of the year-long campaign would be on 22 such countries where the majority of the world's tobacco users live.

Pakistan, India, China and Vietnam are also on the list.

The campaign was launched for World No Tobacco Day 2021 - "Commit to Quit During Covid-19", with the global health body releasing the new Quit Challenge on WhatsApp and publishing "More than 100 reasons to quit tobacco," a WHO news release said.

"Commit to Quit During Covid-19" will help create healthier environments that are conducive to quitting tobacco by advocating for strong tobacco cessation policies, increasing access to cessation services, raising awareness of tobacco industry tactics, and empowering tobacco users to make successful quit attempts through "quit & win" initiatives. 

In Bangladesh, the proportion of adults aged over 15 using tobacco products was 35% in 2017 while that of children between 13 and 15 was 9% in 2014, according to the Global Tobacco Index 2020 released by the Global Centre for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC).

In 2019, Bangladesh recorded 161,253 tobacco-related deaths.     

Moreover, a GGTC report said in November this year that Bangladesh's tobacco industry interferes the most in the country's tobacco control policy and legislation among South Asian countries.

It said Bangladesh had witnessed overall progress in protecting its health policy from interference of the tobacco industry, but more needed to be done to build a tobacco-free nation by 2040.

As the Covid-19 pandemic has led to millions of tobacco users saying they want to quit, the WHO said together with partners, it would create and build up digital communities where people can find the social support they need to quit.

It said it welcomes new contributions from partners, including private sector companies that have offered support, such as Allen Carr's Easyway, Amazon Web Services, Cipla, Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Praekelt, Soul Machines, and WhatsApp. 

Quitting tobacco is challenging, especially with the added social and economic stresses that have come as a result of the pandemic. Worldwide, around 780 million people say they want to quit, but only 30% of them have access to the tools that can help them do so.

"Smoking kills eight million people a year, but if users need more motivation to kick the habit, the pandemic provides the right incentive," said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The WHO released a scientific brief earlier this year, showing that smokers are at higher risk of developing severe disease and death from Covid-19. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes.

Moreover, people living with these conditions are more vulnerable to severe Covid-19.

Both global and regional cessation tools will be rolled out as part of the WHO campaign. The WHO's 24/7 digital health worker to help people quit tobacco is available in English and will soon be released to support people in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. 

"Millions of people worldwide want to quit tobacco – we must seize this opportunity and invest in services to help them be successful, while we urge everyone to divest from the tobacco industry and their interests," said Dr Ruediger Krech, director of health promotion. 

To create environments conducive to quitting tobacco, the WHO has worked with partners and countries around the globe to implement tobacco control measures that effectively reduce the demand for tobacco. 

The WHO called on all governments to ensure their citizens have access to brief advice, toll-free quit lines, mobile and digital cessation services, nicotine replacement therapies and other tools that are proven to help people quit.

Strong cessation services improve health, save lives and save money, it said.