DHAKA, Bangladesh

Unregulated smoking in public places in Bangladesh is sharply increasing the risk of tens of thousands of nonsmokers contracting tuberculosis, doctors and health officials warned on the eve of World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday.

According to official records, 25 million people in the country, mostly males, are smokers with most of them violating the country's existing laws.

“It is a matter of great regret that a huge number of smokers are not at all conscious about nonsmokers and even don't care about their kids,” Dr. Mohammad Abu Raihan, the deputy director of Bangladesh's main tuberculosis hospital in the capital Dhaka, told Anadolu Agency.

Referring to the Tobacco Products (Control) Act, 2005, which was amended in 2013, that imposes a ban on smoking in public places, Raihan said it was very tough to monitor the law everywhere in such an overcrowded country.

According to the law, people are not allowed to smoke in public transport, bus and train stops, markets, hospitals, educational institutes, and all other places of public gatherings.

But a random visit to all those places will show, the law is being violated with impunity.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, child specialist and assistant professor of Bangladesh's lone medical university, Dr. Atiar Rahman, said that smoking at public places not only raises the tuberculosis risks for nonsmoking adults but also for children.

“Thousands of school-going children journey by public buses every day and go through crowded footpaths, where smoking is very common,” said Rahman, stressing that implementation of existing laws is necessary for the interest of the next generation.

Tobacco economy

Habibur Rahman, former additional secretary at the Health Ministry, said that Bangladesh earns around 200 billion takas ($2.4 billion) as revenue from the tobacco sector.

“It may seem that it is a very potential sector for the country's economy. But it has been found that people have to spend an additional 300 billion taka ($3.6B) on health and medical treatments due to diseases caused by smoking,” he said.

He added that people waste billions of dollars to purchase cigarettes and then spend more on medical care.

“So undoubtedly the tobacco sector is a losing sector for the whole world,” he said.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that on average 28,000 people die of tuberculosis every year in Bangladesh though available non-government sources mention the figure much higher.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh are infected by tuberculosis every year.

Lack of awareness is challenge

The country ranks seventh among the 30 high tuberculosis-burden countries and 14th among the high multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) burden countries.

Describing the disease as one of the country's major health problems, Assistant Director of Tuberculosis Hospital Dr. Ayesha Akhter said addressing this infectious disease in Bangladesh is very challenging due to the high density of population and lack of awareness.

“We have no strong database for tuberculosis patients as we are maintaining in the case of the global coronavirus pandemic,” Akhter said.

She called for decentralizing that treatment for tuberculosis and making it available in other cities of the country as well.

In 2016, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had committed to making her country tobacco-free by 2040. To achieve this, health experts believe that the implementation of law and engagement of community leaders including religious leaders, teachers, and other civil society members was necessary to create mass awareness.