One person dies of heart attack every 2-minut

Industry Desk: Every two minutes, a person dies of heart attack in the country. About 32 people die of the disease every hour, about 769 people a day while 23,083 in a month. In total, 2,77,000 people die of heart coronary artery diseases every year. Tobacco alone accounts for 24 percent of the number.
The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019 revealed the information in a report published in this regard.
According to GBD 2019 data, tobacco is one of the top four causes of death and disability in Bangladesh. In the country, 1,61,000 people die annually from tobacco-related diseases. Currently 35.3 percent (37.8 million) of the adult population is using tobacco, making the heart disease situation even more alarming.
In this situation, the World Heart Day 2022 is set to be celebrated on Thursday (September 29). This year the theme of the day is ‘Use Heart for Every Heart’.
Those concerned say that heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and tobacco is one of the main causes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.9 million people worldwide die of heart disease due to tobacco use every year.
Recently, the Ministry of Health has taken initiatives to strengthen the Tobacco Control Act through amendments. Some proposals have been included in the draft which includes abolishing the provision of ‘designated smoking areas’ in all public places and public transport; prohibiting the display of tobacco products or packets at the point of sale; totally imposing ban on participation for tobacco company in social responsibility programmes; Prohibition of all retail or open sale of tobacco products; banning the production, import and sale of all such products, including e-cigarettes, vaping, heated tobacco products, and increasing the size of pictorial health warnings on tobacco product packets or wrappers from 50 percent to 90 percent.
Already the draft has been published on the website and the views of the participants have been received. However, tobacco companies are spreading false and baseless information to hinder this important initiative of the government.
In a reaction on the occasion of World Heart Day, ABM Zubair, executive director of research and advocacy organization Progya (Knowledge for Progress), said that the move by the Ministry of Health to amend the law to reduce the risk of heart disease due to tobacco is very timely. The draft should be finalised soon without being misled by tobacco companies’ propaganda.