Bangladesh faces and economic loss of $3.6 billion annually due to tobacco consumption, says a recent study.
“Bangladesh has been facing economic losses due to tobacco related illness and premature deaths … Only the financial loss is $ 3.6 billion annually that is 1.4 percent of the national income (GDP) of the fiscal year 2007-18,” said the study titled, ‘Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A health cost approach.’
In the year 2013, about 1.26 million premature deaths occur due to tobacco related diseases, which is 13.5 percent of the country’s total death, it added.
The study was conducted by Bangladesh Cancer Society, American Cancer Society, Cancer Research UK and the Department of Economics of Dhaka University. The findings of the study were revealed at a programme at Dhaka Club in the city, state news agency BSS reported.
Children are the most affected due to tobacco. More than two million children are being subjected to indirect smoking, it added.
The study said the environmental and health risk of tobacco cultivation, the threat of food security, threat of fire and damage, environmental pollution and other losses were not measured due to poor farmland use in tobacco cultivation.
Tobacco users have declined significantly in Bangladesh in the last eight years amid signs that anti-tobacco measures yielded benefits, according to the 8017 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2017.
It showed that the consumption rate among the population aged 15 and above have dropped to 35.3 percent in 2017 from 43.3 percent in 2009 when the first GATS was done.
The reduction was mostly among the men -- 46 percent down from 58 percent. Among women, it was reduced to only 25.2 percent from 28.7 percent as the smokeless tobacco which women mostly chew did not decrease, compared to smoking products.
Experts, however, warned against complacency as there are examples in the world that tobacco consumption rose after an initial decline.