Tobacco Production Under Attack in Bangladesh

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 09/02/2010

A number of organizations are demanding that the government ban tobacco farming in the hilly regions of Bangladesh so as to allow the planting of more food crops and to put an end to the negative environmental impacts of tobacco production, according to a story in The Daily Star. Speakers at a protest, organised by the Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance and staged in front of the Jatiya Press Club, called for the enforcement of a high court's ruling that tobacco growing and curing should be ousted from hilly areas. The speakers said that in using firewood to cure tobacco, producers were destroying forests and jeopardising wildlife. Additionally, the huge amount of pesticides used on tobacco farms entered water courses, posing threats to fish and other aquatic life forms, they added. Enditem