If you walk through any busy Dhaka intersection, you will see small tea stalls and corner shops selling cigarettes. For just five taka, less than the price of a bus ride, a teenager can buy a single stick, light up, and disappear into the crowd. No pack, no warning labels, no questions asked. This tiny transaction is fueling a public-health disaster in our country.
Bangladesh already carries one of the world's heaviest tobacco burdens. Research published in 2019 by Bangladesh Cancer Society showed that more than 1 lakha 25 thousand people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses, roughly 13 percent of all deaths in the country. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Yet for many young people, addiction begins with something deceptively small, which is a lone cigarette sold for the cost of a piece of candy.
Recent surveys paint a grim picture. This year researcher Farhana Zaman and her colleagues found that about 70 percent of Bangladeshi smokers admitted that they buy single sticks. Among young adults aged 19 to 35, the number is even higher, around 62 percent. Another nationwide study by Md. Al-Amin Parvez in 2021 found that people aged 18 to 24 are two and a half times more likely to buy singles than older smokers. The reason is obvious: affordability. A pack of 20 cigarettes costs between TK 80 and 284, but a single stick sells for as little as five taka. For a cash-strapped teenager, this is the difference between smoking today and going without.
Health experts warn that early initiation dramatically increases the risk of lifelong addiction as noted by researcher Md. Nazmul Haider and Aznabi Majumder in 2017. Nicotine hooks young brains more quickly than adult ones, making it harder to quit. Teen smokers suffer reduced lung growth and early signs of heart disease, and they are far more likely to carry their habit into adulthood. In Bangladesh, where secondhand smoke already harms tens of thousands of children each year, every new young smoker deepens a national crisis.
“Recent surveys paint a grim picture. This year researcher Farhana Zaman and her colleagues found that about 70 percent of Bangladeshi smokers admitted that they buy single sticks. Among young adults aged 19 to 35, the number is even higher, around 62 percent. Another nationwide study by Md. Al-Amin Parvez in 2021 found that people aged 18 to 24 are two and a half times more likely to buy singles than older smokers”
Bangladesh's tobacco control laws (2005 Act, amended 2013) ban tobacco sales to minors but do not prohibit single-stick sales. Current law forbids selling to anyone under 18, with penalties for vendors. However, enforcement is weak; as a result, sellers routinely ignore age checks and youths easily buy tobacco. In 2016, Imtiaz Ahmed Sajal, Assistant Professor of International Law of Dhaka International University in his review found blatant violations and almost no vendor penalties; the provision against youth sales is 'flagrantly' violated nationwide
Last year's surveys by Nasrin Akter and her colleagues showed that more than three-quarters of students have witnessed single-stick sales on campus. Sellers face little risk of punishment, and the warning labels that appear on cigarette packs, designed to deter buyers, are easily avoided by purchasing individual cigarettes.
This loophole is not unique to Bangladesh. Article 16 of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) urges countries to ban single-stick sales precisely because they make tobacco cheap and accessible to children. More than 116 nations have already taken action. Brazil allows cigarettes to be sold only in sealed packs of 20. Indonesia recently outlawed single sticks and raised the legal purchasing age to 21. South Africa's new tobacco bill bans 'loose cigarettes' outright. These countries show that banning single sticks is not only possible but effective, provided the law is enforced.
Bangladesh has a chance to follow suit. The Health Ministry is now reviewing amendments to the Tobacco Control Act that would outlaw the sale of single cigarettes. Youth and health advocates have already taken to the streets to demand change. If passed and implemented vigorously, a ban would raise the price barrier for young smokers, reinforce graphic health warnings, and signal that the government values the lives of its youth over the profits of the tobacco industry.
Critics may argue that banning single sticks will hurt small shopkeepers. But the real economic harm comes from tobacco itself. Treating tobacco-related diseases costs the Bangladeshi economy far more than the petty profits earned from selling loose cigarettes. Protecting youths from addiction is not only a moral imperative, it is sound economic policy.
A single cigarette may look harmless, but it is often the first step toward a lifetime of disease. Bangladesh cannot afford to ignore the evidence. By banning single-stick sales and enforcing the law, the country can break the cycle of addiction and give its next generation a fighting chance at a smoke-free future.
The writer is a tobacco control advocate at DORP Youth Forum and final year student of Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at University of Dhaka
