Research and advocacy organization Pragya (Knowledge for Progress), a member of the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance, has called for plastic pollution to be tackled by banning disrupted plastics in cigarette filters and vaping products.
The organization made this call in a letter sent to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The letter highlights Article 18 (Environmental Protection) of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) adopted at the COP-10 meeting held on February 10.
According to the letter, the World Health Organization has recommended an immediate ban on cigarette filters and vaporizers – as they are unnecessary, avoidable and harmful, single-use plastics that quickly spread into the environment, destroy microorganisms and marine life, and pollute the oceans. Australia and the UK have already banned disposable vaping products. Belgium and the Netherlands are working to ban cigarette filters, and Benin, Chad and the Gambia have taxed the tobacco industry.
In this regard, Executive Director of Pragya ABM Zubair said that about 71 billion cigarettes are spread as filter waste in Bangladesh every year. Cigarette filters take about a decade to biodegrade and release more than seven thousand chemicals as they biodegrade. To combat plastic pollution, the government should ban cigarette filters and vaporizers.
As a member of the WHO FCTC, Bangladesh has an obligation to implement the global agreement on tobacco control. Banning cigarette filters and vaporizers as avoidable and harmful, classifying cigarette filters as harmful plastic waste, and preventing the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) activities of tobacco companies at the INC-4 meeting to be held on April 23-29 to finalize the initial draft on plastic pollution Pragya requested to work in concert.
AAM/BA/ASM
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