A media campaign focusing on the necessity of ensuring 100% smoke free public places is launched this week to support the move to amend the tobacco control law. The campaign announcement that was produced with support from Vital strategies will run on BTV for six weeks funded by the government. The 30-second video and sub-sequent materials shows how smoking endangers the health of non-smokers including kids and women in facilities where there is a smoking zone provision.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemical compounds, 250 of them are dangerous and 70 of them are carcinogens, which cause cancer in human bodies. Secondhand smoke causes to increase risks of serious diseases including heart attack, stroke, chronic lung diseases like Emphysema and Asthma, diabetics etc. Secondhand smoking exposure kills 1.3 million people in world and about 26 thousand people in Bangladesh, most of them are children and women. To prevent unnecessary death among non-smokers, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and its article 8 recommended to ensure 100% smokefree public place and public transports.
In this perspective, the government’s campaign titled ‘100% smokefree public place’ will be aired in the various medium. Social media platforms of Stop Tobacco Bangladesh (STB) will also create contents and share through its various platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to reach younger audience.
The message of the campaign is very clear. This PSA aims to raise awareness about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. It depicts a scene in a restaurant where smoking and non-smoking zones are separated. Initially, a well-furnished restaurant is shown where people eat with friends and family. There is a designated smoking zone, with a glass door labeled “Smoking Zone.”
Next, in the smoking zone, a man lighting a cigarette while sitting on a sofa, and a woman sitting beside him lights her cigarette with his lighter. The woman takes a puff from her cigarette and exhales smoke into the air. Subsequently, the smoke from the smoking zone flows into the non-smoking zone, where a family is waiting for their food. During this time, the woman in the family inhales secondhand smoke, and computer graphics illustrate how the smoke travels through her body, blocking blood flow and increasing the risk of heart disease.
Finally, a voiceover explains that secondhand smoke can damage our respiratory system, blood vessels, and heart. It can lead to strokes or heart attacks. At the end, the message “Make Public Places 100% Smoke-free” is conveyed, urging the need for smoke-free environments in public spaces.
Md. Shafiqul Islam, senior consultant of Vital Strategies says, “This is a public awareness advertisement highlighting the detrimental effects of tobacco and its various forms, encouraging people to stop using tobacco. Smoking in public places is creating a nuisance causing public irritation. To protect all non-smokers including women and children, smoking should be banned in all public places. Therefore, it is necessary to amend the current tobacco control law soon.”
Aminul Islam Sujon, technical adviser, Vital Strategies says, “Ensuring 100% smoke-free environment will prevent smokers to smoke for longer time and will provide smokefree environment to non-smokers. That is why it is necessary to ensure all public places are 100% smoke-free.
