Protect public health policies from vested interests, says council

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control has urged the government to protect public health policies from commercial and other vested interests.

Its secretary-general Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah expressed concerned that a coffee shop owners’ association had yesterday said that cigarette price increase without discussion with tobacco companies and vendors would affect their business.

He said that Article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in which Malaysia is a signatory, states that in setting and implementing public health policies on tobacco control, governments should protect the policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.

He also said that guidelines for implementation of Article 5.3 of the FCTC reminded countries of the “need to be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine or subvert tobacco control efforts and the need to be informed of activities of the tobacco industry that have a negative impact on tobacco control efforts”.

Muhammad Sha’ani also pointed out the guidelines also states that because their products are lethal, the tobacco industry should not be granted incentives to establish or run their businesses or given any preferential treatment as it would be in conflict with tobacco control policy.

He said that the FCTC determined that special rules were required to limit governments’ interaction with the tobacco industry to protect public health policy and law-setting processes from the interference of the tobacco industry.

That was because tobacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when used entirely as intended, he said.

On the protest against the smoking ban in Parliament, Muhammad Sha’ani said that the Control of Tobacco Product (Amendment) Regulations 2017 has been passed by Parliament and the government was already far behind in implementing tobacco control measures to reduce the smoking prevalence and protecting the public from exposure to tobacco smoke.

Meanwhile, Public Health Malaysia Facebook reminded Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Mokhtar Radin that many parliaments in other countries such as New Zealand, Britain and India had gazetted the place as non-smoking areas.

Bung had earlier said that other parliaments had prepared areas for MPs to smoke and that it is a human right. He was responding to an incident on Tuesday where an MP was fined for smoking in the Parliament building.

Muhammad Sha’ani said that smoking was not a right.

“Smoking is a bad habit and it infringes on the rights of others,” he said.