The Huge Growing Cost of Smoking in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Cancer Society recently released the full report “The Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A Health Cost Approach", based on a comprehensive national study carried out in collaboration with the University of Dhaka and with financial and technical support from the Global Cancer Control and Health and Economic Policy Research Units of the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK.

The study estimates that smoking caused nearly 126,000 deaths[1], accounting for 13.5% of all deaths in Bangladesh in 2018. About 1.5 million adults suffered from diseases attributable to tobacco use and nearly 61,000 children suffered from diseases due to exposure to second-hand smoke. The estimated direct health care costs attributable to tobacco use were 83.9 billion Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) per year, of which 76% were paid by households[2] and 24% from the public health sector budget, accounting for nearly 9% of the total government health expenditure during the financial year 2018-19. The annual productivity loss, due to morbidity and premature mortality, was estimated at BDT 221.7 billion[3]The total annual economic cost thus amounted to BDT 305.6 billion (US$ 3.61 billion), or 1.41% of Bangladesh's GDP in 2017-18.[4].

The annual estimate of the total economic cost of tobacco in Bangladesh has more than doubled since 2004. Lost productivity accounted for 83% of the increased costs attributable to tobacco. For a fast-growing economy like Bangladesh, this cost is expected to increase over time and undermine the growth potential of households affected by the tobacco epidemic. There is an urgent need for government action to curb the tobacco epidemic to maintain the momentum of rapid economic growth with equity.

The study further shows that 14% of the total cost attributable to tobacco was caused by exposure to second-hand smoke.

Although this study takes a broad approach by including direct costs and indirect costs of productivity and household costs, it does not consider the costs of environmental and health damage from tobacco cultivation, loss of food security due to land use for tobacco cultivation, fire hazards related to smoking, environmental pollution from tobacco manufacturing and cigarette butts. Had these costs been estimated, the net loss from tobacco would have been even greater.