PETALING JAYA: A health activist has criticised opponents of the Generational End Game policy for tobacco control for ignoring the fact that most smokers pick up the habit in adolescence.
Azrul Mohd Khalib, CEO of the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, said detractors had asserted that state intervention was unjustified as smoking and vaping are adult choices.
“This ignores the long-known fact that most people start smoking when they are adolescents and teenagers,” he said.
Azrul told FMT that vaping, supposedly for adults trying to quit smoking, was now being taken up by university students and even schoolchildren.
“As long as vaping remains unrestricted and unregulated, the journey to nicotine addiction begins among individuals as young as 10,” he said.
He was also critical of arguments that appeared to imply that people could stop and start smoking whenever they wanted.
“The reality is quite different. Quitting is hard. It takes smokers at least 30 attempts” with a high relapse rate, he said.
Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said there were eight million deaths a year worldwide from smoking-related illnesses. “Of that,1.2 million are passive smokers”, Lee said, referring to those who suffer second-hand smoke.
He said that a 2019 health survey had shown that 31% of non-smokers were exposed to passive smoking while at home.
“With 27,200 yearly deaths in Malaysia – four times the mortality rate of motor vehicle accidents – smoking-related illnesses also significantly burden healthcare resources,” he said.
Lee also said that smokers, once addicted, would lose their freedom as only 30% to 40% of them would eventually kick the habit.
Most successful cessations would occur only after major catastrophic events such as heart attacks, he said.
“In fact, it could be argued that GEG discriminates against those born before 2007 as it does not protect them from tobacco addiction,” he added. - FMT
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