Live webinar on 'Tobacco uses during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh'

ARCED Foundation and ARK Foundation had jointly presented a live webinar on "Tobacco uses during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh"

The webinar took place held on Thursday, August 19, 2021, from 11 AM to 12.30 PM based on a study conducted by ARCED Foundation on tobacco, said a press release.  

The study has been conducted by ARCED Foundation to explore the changes in tobacco use patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic and their correlates among older adults in Bangladesh. 

ARM Mehrab Ali, Executive Director, ARCED Foundation took the initiative to organise the webinar.

Nasiruddin Ahmed, former chairman of National Board of Revenue-NBR and Advisor, ARK Foundation and the chief guest of the webinar outlined the importance of implementing the research into policies.

Mahbubul Alam Tahin, Secretary at Center for Law and Policy Affairs-CLPA, pointed out that the government said essential commodity industries should remain open in this lockdown which also facilitated the tobacco industries to maintain the undisrupted supply whereas other countries like India, South Africa, Middle Eastern Countries prohibited the trade of tobacco and public consumption of tobacco products.

In this pandemic, a significant rise in the price of necessary goods has been noticed but there was no change in terms of tobacco consuming goods. So he proposed that not only the Health ministry but all other ministries should collaborate and work together to reduce the use of tobacco.

Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman, Associate Professor of Public Health, Associate Dean Research, School of Health, Federation University, Australia, Sabuj Kanti Mistry, Scientia Ph.D. scholar, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and Director-Health, ARCED Foundation discussed the research.

Nearly half of the recent accomplices were current tobacco users and they have increased their intakes by approximately 16% in terms of both tobacco and SLT, Smoke Less Tobacco.

The webinar was presided over by Dr Rumana Huque, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and Executive Director, ARK Foundation. She aligned the significance of spreading the findings of this research only then it would be a successful study.

The webinar was live broadcasted on the Facebook pages.