Published on: Sunday, September 27, 2009 |
Kuala Lumpur: The 14-stick packet of cigarettes will be taken off the shelves by the middle of next year.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the implementation date for the ban had not been decided but he hoped it would coincide with the World Tobacco Day on May 31.
He said the ban is to further deter Malaysians, especially the young, from picking up the smoking habit.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 revealed that three million Malaysians are smokers and about 450,000 are aged between 13 and 18.
The survey shows that 46.4 per cent are adult males, 1.6 per cent adult females, 26 per cent adolescent boys and three per cent adolescent girls.
"My concern is the young people.
"I do not want them to pick up the habit as smoking kills," Liow said.
In Malaysia, studies have revealed that every day, 50 children pick up the smoking habit.
Malaysian Women's Action for Tobacco Control and Health (MyWatch) President, Datuk Hatijah Ayob, has called on the Government to ban the sale of all packings of less than 20 sticks of cigarettes.
She said any delay in the ban would only lead to an increase in smoking among children and escalate the cost of treating smoking-related diseases in the future.
A Universiti Sains Malaysia survey in 2003 also found that children picked up the habit from as early as 10 years old.
On the health graphic warnings on cigarette packs which came into force in June this year, Liow said:
"It initially did have an impact with people either giving up smoking or reducing smoking. But the tobacco industry came up with other measures to cover up the graphic health warnings."
He said an initial study also revealed smokers go for less appalling graphic pictures while the young were put off by the pictures..
"We want the graphic health warnings on cigarette packets to act as a deterrent to smoking.
"It is good for beginners," said Liow.
Liow, however, admitted that the graphic warning was not effective among long-time smokers.
More than 10,000 people die every year of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory complications due to smoking.
The national medical bill for treating diseases linked to smoking totals more than RM3 billion a year.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation, two days ago, denounced the tobacco industry's attempts to undermine global efforts to reduce smoking.
Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said governments must recognise that there was a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry's interests and public health policy interest.
