KUALA LUMPUR: Those born after 2005 might no longer be allowed to buy tobacco or smoking products in Malaysia.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the country hopes to pass a legislation this year, which will outlaw the sale of tobacco and other smoking products to anyone born after the stipulated year.
"We hope to pass a legislation this year which, if successful, will bring about a generational endgame to smoking by making it illegal for tobacco and other smoking products to anyone born after 2005.
"Malaysia feels that this would have a significant impact on controlling NCDs (non-communicable diseases," he said while speaking at the World Health Organisation's (WHO) executive board meeting in Geneva yesterday (Thursday).
The New Straits Times is still finding out if other smoking products here means that the proposed law would also cover vape and vaping products.
Khairy also talked about a "generational endgame" in his New Year message, stating that there will come a time when the coming generation "will no longer know what a cigarette is".
The legal age for smoking is 18 and above. Those born in 2005 will be 18 in 2023, as such they are expected to be the last batch of youth with access to cigarettes if the law is passed.
According to Malaysia's 2020 report to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, one in five (21.3 per cent) people aged 15 years and older in the country are smokers.
His announcement comes a week after he said the government plans to table a Tobacco and Smoking Control Act in the next session of the Dewan Rakyat.
Tobacco products are currently covered under the Food Act 1983, and Khairy said the new law would regulate e-cigarettes and vape products and eventually phase out smoking.
The ministry reportedly estimated that there are 27,000 tobacco-related deaths annually in the country due to illnesses like heart disease, cancer and stroke.
Around 15 per cent of the 27,000 tobacco-related deaths were also found to be non-smokers who died from exposure to second-hand smoke.