Malaysia believes that it will be able to become smoke-free by 2045 through the implementation of anti-smoking initiatives and co-operation with other ASEAN countries, according to a story in The Sun Daily.
The Sun quoted the Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Hilmi Yahaya as saying that strategies being drawn up included ‘intensifying health promotion efforts in a comprehensive manner’.
“Cigarettes or tobacco are the biggest threat and main risk factor for non-communicable diseases, which contribute to more than half a million deaths in the ASEAN region each year,” Hilmi said.
“That is why Malaysia together with other ASEAN countries wish to co-operate and share views towards creating smoke-free nations. I believe Malaysia will be able to reach the target by 2045.”
Hilmi was speaking in George Town after opening the Regional Smoke-Free Cities Workshop and The Summit of Smoke-Free Leaders.
He was joined by the South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance chairman, Dr. Siriwat Tiptaradol, and the Malaysian Health Promotion Board chairman, Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Nasir Mohd Ashraf.
Hilmi said the Health Ministry aimed to reduce the number of smokers in Malaysia to 15 percent by 2025 and to less than five percent by 2045, in line with the target of becoming a smoke-free nation.
The deputy minister said the government had undertaken various initiatives such as raising the excise duty on cigarettes and requiring graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.
The government was making available free services at 944 quit-smoking clinics, through which 2,973 smokers, or 27.6 percent of the 10,791 smokers who had sought advice and counselling, had managed to quit smoking.