Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin hinted that Malaysia would ban cigarettes in the future by banning the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to those born after 2005. Speaking at the 150th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board Meeting in Geneva, Khairy hoped the law could be passed this year, the Malay Mail reported.
"This is by banning the sale of tobacco and other cigarette products to anyone born after 2005. Malaysia feels it will have a big impact in preventing and controlling NCDs (non-communicable diseases)," he said.
In addition, in his New Year 2022 message to the Ministry of Health, Khairy also spoke about the end generation of smoking, where he saw that the time would come when the next generation didn't know what cigarettes were.
For the record, based on the Malaysia 2020 report to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, one in five (21.3%) of the population aged 15 years and above in the country is a smoker. The MOH estimates that there are 27,000 deaths due to tobacco each year in the country such as heart disease, cancer and stroke.
