Speakers at a workshop yesterday underscored the need for taking effective measures to control use of tobacco products to save huge amount of people's funds and protect users from health hazards.

They said 81 percent of people consider imposition of higher taxes and duties on tobacco products is an effective measure to reduce tobacco uses without affecting government's revenue collection.

The workshop titled "Effective utilisation of GATS date for tobacco control advocacy in Bangladesh" organised by Progga in cooperation with Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Md Raisul Alam Mandol, Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, inaugurated the workshop. Dr Mostafa Zaman, National Professional Officer of World Health Organisation (WHO), spoke with Progga Chairman Taifur Rahman in the chair.

Dr Mostafa Zaman presented the report on Global Adults Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2009 in the workshop.

According to the report, 44 percent of men and 1.5 percent of women use smoking tobacco across the country while non-smoking tobacco is used by 26.4 percent of men and 27.2 percent of women in both urban and rural areas.

He said although the Tobacco Control Act covers smoking tobaccos, but non-smoking tobaccos like jarda, sada pata, gul are still out of the purview of the act.

"Both smoking and non-smoking tobaccos have similar impacts on health and incur financial loss, so non-smoking tobaccos like jarda, sada pata, gul should be brought under the coverage of the act," he added.

The report said the use of tobacco is higher in lower education and poor families than higher education and rich households.

The use of cigarettes per day is five sticks on an average while that of bidis is seven, the report said, adding that the price gaps between cigarettes and bidis should be reduced to discourage smoking tobacco among lower income groups and youths in rural areas.

Dr Mostafa quoting his survey said 47.3 percent of the smoking tobacco users and 28.5 percent of non-smoking tobacco users attempted to give up tobacco last year. This group of people needed support for making their efforts successful, he added.

Despite lower capacity on both financial and institutional aspects, the anti-smoking drive was 49.8 percent successful, while giant tobacco manufacturers' efforts of marketing tobacco products was 48.7 percent successful.

In his paper, Taifur emphasised more focus on anti-tobacco activities in both print and electronic media.

He said effective awareness building drive against tobacco through utilising media could bring better results in making the efforts successful.

He said illegal advertisements for tobacco still continue violating Tobacco Control Act as 32 percent of people noticed advertisements of tobacco products outside stores.

Of the non-smokers, over 93 percent are exposed to second-hand smoking (passive smoking), he said, adding that this also causes health hazards to a great extent.

The study shows, among adults, 45 percent were exposed to second-hand smoking in public places while 27.6 percent in restaurants, 26.3 percent in most common places.

Among all indoor workers, 75.7 percent or 51 lakh people are exposed to second-hand smoking, it added.