Iqbal Masud
Bangladesh has committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” Yet one of the biggest obstacles to achieving this goal is tobacco. Every year, tobacco kills more than 161,000 people in Bangladesh and pushes countless families into poverty through healthcare costs and lost productivity. While the government has taken important steps toward tobacco control, a powerful force continues to undermine progress: the tobacco industry.
This is where Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) becomes crucial. Article 5.3 obliges governments to protect their public health policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. The reason is clear; tobacco companies profit from addiction. Their business model depends on keeping people hooked, which directly conflicts with the nation’s public health priorities. Allowing them to influence health policy is like letting polluters write environmental laws.
Unfortunately, interference by the tobacco industry is all too common in Bangladesh. Companies lobby policymakers to delay or weaken legislation on tax increases, packaging, and advertising restrictions, 100% smoke free places, sales to minors, licensing etc. They highlight their contributions to government revenue or employment while downplaying the much greater economic losses caused by tobacco-related illness and premature death. Even more insidious are their so-called corporate social responsibility activities: sponsoring disaster relief, funding education projects, or planting trees. These are not acts of charity but deliberate strategies to polish their image and maintain access to policymakers.
The impact of such interference is profound. Every time stronger tobacco control measures are delayed; more young people take up smoking or other forms of tobacco use. More families lose loved ones to preventable disease. More public money is drained into treating illnesses that could have been avoided. Tobacco control is not just a health issue, it is a development issue, directly linked to poverty reduction, economic growth, and the achievement of SDG Goal 3.
To meet its global commitments, Bangladesh must act decisively. Full implementation of Article 5.3 means rejecting partnerships with the tobacco industry in all forms, ensuring transparency in any necessary interactions, and protecting public officials from conflicts of interest. It means making it clear that no amount of corporate philanthropy can erase the damage caused by tobacco, and no corporate interest should outweigh the health of citizens.
Tobacco use is one of the most significant barriers to sustainable development in Bangladesh. By closing the door to industry interference, the government can create policies and laws that genuinely serve the people’s health and accelerate progress toward SDG Goal 3. This is not simply a matter of international obligation; it is a moral responsibility to protect lives and ensure a healthier, more prosperous future for the nation.
The writer is a public health analyst
