New PROGGA and TCRG paper exposes industry interference in Bangladesh

Graphic health warnings (GHWs) are a proven, cost-effective means of raising awareness of the harms associated with tobacco use. They encourage current users to quit, and reduce the appeal of tobacco products for those who have yet to start.

A new paper, published in the BMJ’s Tobacco Control, reveals how the tobacco industry undermined the development and implementation of GHWs in Bangladesh, following a 2013 amendment to the country’s tobacco control law which sought to introduce GHWs on the upper half of all tobacco products. As of May 2022, the GHWs were still being printed on the less effective lower half of tobacco products.

The paper was co-authored by Dr Britta K. Matthes and Professor Anna B. Gilmore of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, with four tobacco control advocates from PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), a Bangladesh-based anti-tobacco research and advocacy organization: Mr. ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA; Mr. Md Hasan Shahriar, Head of Programs; Md Shahedul Alam, Head of Advocacy; and Md Mehedi Hasan, Media Manager of Tobacco Control Program.

Read the paper here:

Tobacco industry interference to undermine the development and implementation of graphic health warnings in Bangladesh, Shahriar MH, Hasan MM, Alam MS, Matthes BK, Gilmore AB, Zubair ABM, Tobacco Control, Published Online First: 25 April 2023, doi: 10.1136/tc-2022-057538

See also the PROGGA press release.