Health warnings would be printed on cigarettes under proposed regulations

The Malaysian government is considering whether it should make tobacco manufacturers print ‘Smoking is hazardous to health’ on every cigarette they produce, according to a story in The Star.

This and other new provisions are expected to be added to the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004.

A government source was quoted as saying that the Health Ministry would, in the next two weeks, seek online public feedback on its plans to discourage Malaysians from smoking.

The source said the proposed amendments to the act were in line with the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Malaysia 2011 in which 83.5 per cent of the respondents wanted public places to be 100 per cent.

The ministry will be proposing, too, that nicotine and tar levels be cut from 1.5 mg to 1.25 mg and from 20 mg to 15 mg respectively, per cigarette. But its future goal is for these limits to be reduced to 1 mg and 10 mg.

Bigger health warnings are being looked at, as is plain packaging of the sort being introduced inAustralia.