Dzulkefly Ahmad announces yet another delay in enforcing the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act, now to end 2024 – one year since Parliament passed the bill in Dec 2023 and nearly two years since liquid nicotine was deregulated on March 31, 2023.
KUALA LUMPUR, August 1 — The government has further delayed the enforcement of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852) after several false starts.
Sinar Harian reported Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad as telling reporters in Gua Musang, Kelantan, today that the Ministry of Health (MOH) “hopes to be able to implement the Act by year end.”
He was quoted as saying that the proposed regulations under the Act – which cover registration, sale, packaging and labelling of smoking products that include conventional and electronic cigarettes, as well as orders like smoke-free places – are currently at the “final stage” at the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).
Last May and early June, Dzulkefly promised to enforce Act 852 in June. Last July 1, the health minister shifted the target to August.
If Act 852 and its regulations do come into operation in December 2024 as promised, this would mark one entire year since Dewan Negara passed the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 on December 14, 2023.
It would also be a year and nine months since nicotine vape and e-cigarettes have been legalised for everyone – including children and minors aged below 18 years – after then-Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa signed an order to remove liquid nicotine from the list of scheduled poisons under the Poisons Act on March 31, 2023, to enable taxation on nicotine vape liquids.
A vape vending machine selling nicotine vapes at a shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur, without age verification features, used to be operational, until Ministry of Health (MOH) officials made a visit and “advised” the mall’s management to shutter the vending machine out of “social responsibility”. MOH’s visit was made after a photo of the vape vending machine went viral on X.
A report by the National Poison Centre (NPC) released last March found a five-fold surge in vape or e-cigarette emergencies, mostly involving nicotine poisoning, from six cases in 2015 to 34 cases in 2023, with the majority of cases affecting children under the age of five.
Following parliamentary passage in December 2023, the country’s first standalone tobacco and vape control Act was gazetted into law last February 2.
Dzulkefly did not specify which regulations in particular are facing pushback from the tobacco and vape industry that is causing the delay in enforcement. Vape retailers have opposed a proposed retail display ban and “standard” packaging on vape products.
Source: Code Blue
