Close loopholes in tobacco laws, govt urged

A former health ministry official says regulations on smoking were placed in the Food Act as “a quick fix”.

PETALING JAYA: Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad says it is high time the government enacted dedicated smoking regulations, as laws that currently exist under the Food Act 1983 are outdated and provide loopholes to tobacco companies.

He said a new bill to control all tobacco-related products and e-cigarettes was to have been introduced by the end of 2019 and that this Tobacco Control Bill was being drafted when he was minister.

However, it has yet to see the light of day. He was “told the new Act is with the Attorney-General’s Chambers”. Dzulkefly conceded that “as we know, tobacco companies are very strong in lobbying against this particular act”.

He added that “a separate act to regulate tobacco will provide the much needed framework to regulate trade and commerce, which involves the production, supply and distribution” of smoking products.

Dr Lekraj Rampal of the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control said only a standalone law would allow Malaysia to meet its goal of reducing smoking prevalence to under 5% by 2045.

“One of the big issues is the selling and promotion of newer smoking products, like e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and vapes, which isn’t included in the Food Act..

“The other thing we need to do is to increase the legal buying age from 18 to 21, as young buyers may not know the addictive dangers of cigarettes.”

Dr Zarihah Mohd Zain, a former health ministry official who helped draw up the original smoking regulations in Malaysia, said it was initially placed under the Food Act 1983 out of convenience.

“We wanted a quick fix in 1994 because if you want a standalone act it needs to go through Parliament and so on, it’s a lot of work.”

Now, however, Dr Zarihah said “(the government) should do away with current regulations because there are a lot of loopholes” which cannot be patched as “all laws that come under the food act must abide by the mother law”.

Such a move would allow for up-to-date definitions of products, modern labelling regulations and jurisdiction over smoking products that hadn’t been introduced when the laws were drawn up.

Dr Lekraj said the government must act quickly in order to meet current targets and protect Malaysians from non-communicable diseases such as cancer and heart complications.

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