DHAKA, Nov 22, 2022 (BSS) - Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today urged the mass media to play a role in preventing tobacco, electronic cigarette and lead addictions.

The minister made the call while exchanging views at an anti-tobacco meeting organized by Unnayan Samannoy at an auditorium of Biswa Sahitya Kendra in the capital with the organization's chairman and Bangladesh Bank former governor Dr Atiur Rahman in the chair.

Hasan said, in addition to cigarettes, it is now becoming a fashion for upper middle class and middle class youths to go to lead bars in different cafes and smoke electronic cigarettes. The youths are becoming highly addicted to those products, he added.

The minister said the mass media could play a pivotal role in this regard. There are about 36 TV channels in the country and those can air reports regularly over the bad impacts of different tobacco products, said Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary.

The minister also advised the private organizations working on these issues to write letters to the Health Ministry, Law Ministry and the National Board of Revenue to control the import and marketing of tobacco products and stop online sale in particular.

Atiur Rahman said there is no alternative to strengthening tobacco control to protect the new generation and keep the nation healthy. And the mass media could play an important role in this regard, he added.

Research director of the organisation Abdullah Nodvi read out the key-not paper while senior project coordinator Shahin Ul Alam gave welcome address.