Rally held in Cox's Bazar sea beach demanding 100% smoke-free public places
With the demand for ensuring 100% tobacco smoke-free environment in public places and public transport, a rally was held on Saturday (23 July) at the Sugandha Point of Cox's Bazar Sea Beach.
The rally, organised with support from Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids (CTFK), was a part of the first day of activities of the two-day SDG Youth Summit 2022 event.
Around three hundred youths, including students, participated in the rally.
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The existing tobacco control law lacks the necessary provision to ensure a 100% tobacco smoke-free environment in all public places and public transport and thus falls short to safeguard public health from the harms of passive smoking, said speakers at the rally.
The rally was organised to create mass awareness on ensuring a 100% tobacco smoke-free environment in public places and public transport and safeguarding people's lives from passive smoking by amending the existing tobacco control law at the earliest.
According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2017, 42.7% of the adult population who work in indoor workplaces (8.1 million people in number) fall victim to passive smoking and another 24 percent of adults (25 million in number) who use public transport get exposed to such smoke.
Another study has revealed that 95% of school-going children of Dhaka city have a higher level of nicotine in their saliva which is undoubtedly a result of passive smoking.
Nearly 61,000 children fall ill every year due to health complications caused by exposure to passive smoking, according to the study.
