The number of smokers in Bangladesh in 2017 has dropped by 18.5 per cent since 2009, The Daily Star reported.

The results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) were presented at a joint discussion by Progotir Jonno Gyan (Progga), an anti-tobacco research organization, and the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) in Dhaka. Anti-tobacco campaigners welcomed the significant decline, but noted that this was not enough to make Bangladesh a tobacco-free country by 2040, the report said. “The outcome is a result of the efforts of the government and the non-government sectors. But our organization doesn't think that progress was made as per expectation. There is a long way to go,” Hasan Shahriar, coordinator of Progga, was quoted as saying.

According to GATS, in 2009 over 43 per cent of the country's population aged 15 years and older has consumed various smoking and smokeless tobacco products. In 2017, the rate dropped to 35.3 per cent. Government initiatives, such as the introduction of pictorial health warnings on tobacco packs, have caused the decline, said the survey. Over 20 per cent currently use smokeless tobacco – mostly Betel quid (paan) with chewing tobacco and powder tobacco (gul); 18 per cent use smoking tobacco products, mainly cigarettes and bidi. The number of bidi smokers decreased by more than half compared to 2009, but the proportion of cigarette smokers remained almost unchanged (around 14 per cent), according to the survey.