All restaurants in Sylhet district were declared as smoking-free places on Sunday.Announcing the decision at a discussion at the Zilla Parishad auditorium, President of Sylhet unit of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association Ataur Rahman said they would try their best to enforce the decision in all the restaurants in the district in an effort to supplement the government efforts to ensure a clean environment for all.
Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association jointly arranged the programme, ‘Necessity of smoke-free restaurants’, where additional deputy commissioner of Sylhet Sheikh Matiar Rahman spoke as the chief guest.
Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association secretary general M Rezaul Karim Sarker Robin, Modon Mohon College former Principal Lt Col (retd) Ataur Rahman Pir and Sylhet Bar Association former president Emad Ullah Shahidul Islam, among others, addressed the programme with the Sylhet chapter chief of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association in the chair.
The discussion was told that some 57,000 people die of tobacco-related diseases and 382,000 are affected with various chronic diseases every year due to use of tobacco and smoking.
Citing GATT Report 2009, the speakers said some 42 million people of the country fall victims to passive smoking. A staggering 25.8 million of them fall victims to passive smoking only in restaurants. (Source: UNB)
