ADHUNIK, CAT and UN Information Centre jointly organised 'Meet the Press' programme at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity in city Thursday ahead of World No Tobacco Day on May 31, reports UNB.

Founder President of ADHUNIK National Professor Nurul Islam, CAT President and UNB Chairman Amanullah Khan, Kazi Ali Reza of the UN Information Centre, LIFE Chairman and CAT Secretary General Qamrul Islam Sony, Editor of Tamak Sangbad (Tobacco News) Ahmed Iftekharul Islam and Executive Secretary of ADHUNIK Abdul Jabbar attended the programme. Addressing the occasion, Nurul Islam said there are 15 million (1.50 crore) male and about 5.0 million female smokers in Bangladesh. If on an average one cigarette is smoked per person per day, we are burning two crore cigarette daily and if the average cost is 50 paisa per cigarette, we are burning out Tk 10 million daily or on other words Tk 3.65 billion annually. Annual budget of the country is over Tk 40 billion. Tobacco products today kill 3.5 million people in a year, which means that during the decade more than 35 million people will be removed from this planet by the killer tobacco. Basic human needs are food, cloth, shelter, education and health. Overwhelming population is a great challenge to the family income. They can hardly afford adequate food and minimum nutrition to the large number of children and other dependent family members, Islam said. Islam said that with shortage of money, the first affected item in the family is food. Consequently, children suffer from severe malnutrition and various deficiency disorders. This again lead to repeated infections and increased child mortality. Thus a vicious circle is established through misdirected expenditure on tobacco. In Egypt, over 10 per cent of household expenditure in lower income household went for cigarette or other tobacco products. More Headline Need for implementation of juvenile law stressed Compensation commission for disabled workers demanded Tobacco products kill 3.5m people every yr Free media can play vital role in economic dev: Delwar President condoles death of Mafizuddin AL rally at Paltan Maidan today Gillette distributes prizes among winners of slogan contest Research centre awaits debut New directors of Lafarge Surma Cement

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