News reports:
www.thestar.com.my
Monday June 2, 2008
MYT 7:52:23 PM
KUALA LUMPUR:
The Clearinghouse for Tobacco Control (C-Tob) has
welcomed the Health
Ministry’s announcement on the Control of Tobacco
Products Regulations 2004 (amended) on World No Tobacco
Day (WNTD) on May 31.
The amendments include the
introduction of graphic health warning on cigarette
packs, a ban on descriptors such as "mild" and
"light," a ban on items that come with the
purchase of cigarettes and also the use of words that
indicate cigarette promotion.
The move was proactive and meets World
Health Organisation-Framework Convention for Tobacco
Control guidelines, of which Malaysia is a member, said
Associate Professor Dr Foong Kin, spokesman for C-Tob, a
Universiti Sains Malaysia-based organisation.
Dr Foong said that Ministry should
also ban the use of sleeves, wallet pack designs and
inserts. “Sleeves can be used to conceal graphic
health warnings on packs, wallet packs (banned in
Australia) can be ripped apart to be shared as kiddie
packs, and in the past, the industry had placed
advertisements on inserts,” she said.
C-Tob also anticipated that the
tobacco industry would be asking for an extension for
the implementation of these bans and cautioned the
Government against entertaining such requests, noting
that the industry was already producing cigarettes with
pictorial health warnings in Thailand and Singapore.
Dr Foong also said that between 2006
and 2007, the industry had produced new cigarette pack
designs almost every two months.
“The urgency in implementing the
move is crucial because smoking has caused more than
10,000 Malaysians to die and tens of thousands more
languish from smoking-related diseases every year,”
she said.
