Working at a non-governmental office, Imran Hossain suffers from second-hand smoking daily at his office in Agargaon in the capital since the office does not have any designated “smoking zone.”
Some of Imran’s colleagues regularly come to his office room to smoke and gossip and more often than not, he cannot ask them to not smoke there.
“Some of them are senior colleagues and I cannot tell them not to smoke in my room. There is no designated smoking zone in our office as the smokers often have their cigarettes in emergency exit staircases or balconies. It rather makes the situation more vulnerable as the emergency exit staircase becomes hazardous,” said Imran.
Even though a provision was incorporated in the Tobacco Control Act banning smoking in public places, widespread incidents of smoking have been noticed regularly in places in the capital, creating nuisance for non-smokers.
Hardly aware about the legal provision, restaurant owners, public buses’ staff allow smoking. Non-smokers, who often turn victims to second-hand passive smoking can rarely protest.
While visiting private and public places, designated smoking zones were rarely noticed prompting smokers to have their cigarettes at places whimsically.
This indiscriminate smoking puts the most vulnerable members of our society such as children, school-goers and pregnant women in hazardous situations, said health experts.
A study titled ‘Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Primary School Children: A Survey in Dhaka, Bangladesh’ in 2017 found that nine out of ten children in the capital suffer from passive smoking in public places.
Children exposed to second-hand smoke are at risk of developing chest and ear infections. And, for children with asthma, it can increase the frequency and severity of asthma attacks, the study said.
According to World Health Organisation, non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25–30 percent.
“Second-hand tobacco smoke causes more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year and serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Almost half of the children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places, and 65,000 die each year from illnesses attributable to second-hand smoke,’ said a WHO report.
The Tobacco Control Act clearly bans smoking in public places to safeguard people from second-hand smoking with a provision of fining offenders Tk 300 with the provision that the penalty shall be doubled for each subsequent violation.
But the concerned authorities seem indifferent to implement the Act which allows for widespread violation and indiscriminate smoking in public places.
