Dhaka: The tobacco factories and companies will have to insert pictorial warning signs on their tobacco products by 19 March next year to make people aware of adverse impacts of tobacco on human health, says an official of the Health Ministry.

‘Pictorial warnings must be inserted on the packets of tobacco products by 19 March next. And we have already selected the pictoral warnings that will be introduced on tobacco products,’ programme officer of the National Tobacco Control Cell M Mir Nabin Ekram told a workshop on Friday.

He said it is mandatory to insert pictorial warnings on the packets of all kinds of tobacco products, bidi, cigarette, gul and jarda.

Progga, an anti-tobacco organisation, arranged the two-day media training workshop for journalists at the conference room of the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB).        

Currently, the multinational tobacco companies and local tobacco factories enjoy plain packaging of tobacco products in Bangladesh, which is not found in any developed country.

The current Smoking and Usage of Tobacco Products (Control) (Amendment) Act 2013 says pictorial health warning must be put on at least 50 percent area of packets of the tobacco products, which will allow smokers understand health risks and quit as well as a discouragement for non-smokers.

According to anti-tobacco activists, since there are a number of people who cannot read or understand the messages given by tobacco companies, the literal warning is not working effectively. So, the pictorial warnings, which is set to be put on packets of tobacco products, will help them to understand its adverse impacts on health.

 According to available data (Prevalence of tobacco use in Bangladesh-2009), about 95,000 people die in Bangladesh each year while there are 1.2 million cases of tobacco-attributable illness every year.