Govt to introduce law to ban smoking for those born after 2005, says Khairy

A new law will be introduced to ban smoking and the possession of tobacco products, including vape, for those born after 2005, as a generational end game for smoking in the country, says Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said the introduction of the law would reduce the future generations’ exposure to cigarettes and tobacco products as tobacco use is the leading cause of cancer and contributes to 22% of deaths due to cancer.

“Meaning, if you are 17 years old and Parliament passes the act, you will never be able to buy cigarettes in this country ever again,” he said at the virtual launch of his ministry’s Cancer Day celebration today.

Khairy said cancer cases had increased by 11% to 115,238 for the period of 2012 to 2016, from 103,507 cases recorded from 2007 to 2011.

It is estimated that one in 10 men and one in nine women are at risk of getting cancer, he said.

The three most common types of cancer among men in Malaysia are colorectal cancer (16.9%), lung cancer (14.8%) and prostate cancer (8.1%), while among women, the top three are breast cancer (33.9%), colorectal cancer (10.7%) and cervical cancer (6.2%).

Khairy said cancer is also the leading cause of death recorded at private hospitals (34.95%) and the fourth in government hospitals (11.56%).

This year alone, he said the government had allocated RM137 million for radiotherapy and oncology services, not including other costs such as imaging and laboratories for diagnosis confirmation, surgery and anesthesiology, rehabilitation and palliative care services.