Staff Reporter:
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority-BRTA and the Health Sector of Dhaka Ahsania Mission have trained 140 public transport drivers on the proper implementation of the Tobacco Products Act (amend-ment-2013).
The training was held on Wednesday (November 1) morning at Joar Sahara BRTC Bus Depot in the cap-ital titled ‘Professional Drivers’ Professional Skill and Awareness Training’.
Adut Rahman Emon, Program Officer of the Tobacco Control Project of the Health Sector of DAM, presented a documentary on the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act and health damage among professional drivers.
In the training, public transport drivers (bus, CNG, Laguna, Tempu) are informed about the bad effects of direct and indirect smoking, health hazards, and tobacco control laws. Passengers, especially women and children, are indirectly exposed to smoking in public transport due to the smoking of drivers and their assistants. As a result, they suffer from the same damage as non-smokers.
At this time, the participating drivers got a clear idea through a video documentary about the harmful-ness of smoking in public transport, and the legal obligations were presented to the bus drivers in detail.
Smoking in public places such as bus terminals, airports, railway stations, seaports, public offices, and public places is a punishable offence. All non-smokers, including many women and children, are ex-posed to second-hand smoking in places where direct smokers are exposed.
Dhaka Ahsania Mission and the BRTA have been jointly conducting this training programme every week, with the aim of making public transport 100% tobacco-free.
