De hedder bidis og sælges bl.a. på Christiania i København og er let genkendelige på deres sødlige duft – men ude i Asien er de et stigende samfundsproblem, når fattige mennesker ryger dem, fordi de er så billige.
DHAKA, 7 August 2012 (IRIN): Activists in Bangladesh are calling for a tobacco tax to fight the climbing death toll from non-communicable diseases (NCDs = ikke-smitsomme sygdomme) caused by smoking, especially an inexpensive cigarette called a “bidi”, made of tobacco flakes and usually rolled in leaves from local trees.
“There is a need to reduce consumption through higher taxation because tobacco in any form – bidi, cigarette or smokeless [tobacco products like snuff or chewing tobacco] – brings deadly health harms, and bidi, being the poor man’s cigarette, is consumed more than [factory-made] cigarettes,” said Rajika Jayatilake, an associate director of the US-based NGO, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The government’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) reported that more than 40 percent of adults smoked tobacco in 2009, with 11 percent smoking “bidi” cigarettes, a popular substitute for pre-packaged cigarettes in rural areas.
Bidi smoking rose by over 80 percent between 1997 and 2010, compared to an overall increase in cigarette smoking of some 40 percent during the same period, according to a 2012 study published by the Paris-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
The authors note that tobacco use in Bangladesh is going up, mainly because it carries a low tax and the ingredients are cheap, making it more affordable than other cigarettes.
Four bidi cigarettes cost 1 taka, or (ca. seks øre), while a pack of 25 costs at most 7 US cents (ca. 40 øre). The study concluded that taxing bidis could force 3,4 million adult bidi smokers to quit and prevent another 3,5 million young people from taking up the habit.
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96043/BANGLADESH-Rising-death-toll-from-poor-man-s-cigarette
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