All Offices of Food Safety Authority Declared 100 Percent Smoke-Free at Dhaka Head Office Event

All offices under the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority have been declared 100 percent tobacco- and smoke-free. The step was taken to protect the health of officials, employees and people coming for services from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

The authority's chairman (additional secretary) Md Shafiqul Islam made the announcement on Monday (26 October) at an event jointly organised by Dhaka Ahsania Mission and the authority at the authority's head office in the capital.

At the event, Shafiqul Islam said the decision had been taken to keep all offices 100 percent tobacco- and smoke-free to protect officials, employees working in the offices and visiting guests from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. From now on, a smoke-free environment would be maintained in these offices following the national guidelines on tobacco control, he said.

The keynote paper at the event was presented by Md Shariful Islam, coordinator of Dhaka Ahsania Mission's tobacco control project. He said tobacco smoke contains about seven thousand types of chemical substances. Of them, about 250 are harmful to the human body and can cause serious disease and death.

He also said about two lakh people die in Bangladesh every year because of tobacco. In enclosed workplaces, 42.7 percent, and in government offices 21.6 percent, of non-smoking men and women are at health risk from secondhand smoke.

Speakers at the event said about 3 crore 78 lakh people in the country use tobacco products. Of them, 1 crore 92 lakh people smoke. In addition, about four crore people are victims of secondhand smoke without smoking themselves. They stressed keeping all public gathering places 100 percent smoke-free to protect people from this harm.

The speakers also demanded the speedy formulation of rules under the amended Tobacco Control Act-2026 to protect people from the harm of smoking and tobacco products.

The event, conducted by the authority's law officer Ferdous Arafat, was attended as discussants by the authority's member Anwarul Islam Sarkar, additional director Kausarul Islam Sikdar, Dhaka Ahsania Mission's assistant physician for health and nutrition Dr Nayla Parvin, members of the Ahsania Mission Youth Forum for Health and Wellbeing, and directors of different departments.