[Intl-tobacco] Malaysia: CAP: Impose stricter controls on tobacco use (fwd)

Tue, 23 May 2000 12:16:26 -0400 (EDT)

CAP: Impose stricter controls on tobacco use
by Jessinta Tan
MALAYSIA;
Source: The Star (Malaysia), Sunday, 5/21/00

PENANG: The Government should gazette and enforce fatwa (Islamic ruling) =
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declaring smoking as haram (prohibited), the Consumers Association of
Penang (CAP) said yesterday.

Its vice-president Mohideen Abdul Kader said the fatwa provided by the
state religious committees in Selangor and Kedah in 1995 had not been
gazetted.

He said the Government should gazette and enforce the fatwa in view of the
serious health threats posed by smoking.

"In drawing up a policy on smoking, the Government should place the health
and lives of millions of people before the profits of tobacco companies,''
he said at CAP's Islamic Stand on the Cigarette Industry seminar here
yesterday.

He also urged the Government to impose stricter controls on tobacco use.

"Ban all forms of direct or indirect promotions and sponsorship activities
by tobacco companies. Register nicotine as an addictive drug and license
retail sales of cigarettes.

"Increase taxes on tobacco and put cigarettes beyond the reach of children
and the poor,'' he said, adding that Pusat Islam could play a more active
role in educating the Muslim community.

Universiti Malaya medical faculty lecturer Dr Nabilla Al-Sadat Abdul
Mohsein said claims by the tobacco industry that there were no
economically viable alternatives to growing tobacco were constantly being
disputed.

She said there were many crops that could grow on land currently used for
tobacco cultivation.

"They include the majority of grain crops and vegetables such as cabbage,
potatoes, chillies and roselle,'' she said in her paper.

Universiti Sains Malaysia's Dr Mohd Isa Abdul Majid and Dr Dzulkifli Abdul
Razak said cigarettes and tobacco use should be banned because they
contained an addictive drug.

"Addiction to smoking is the same as addiction to drugs such as heroin and
cocaine and alcohol,'' they said in a working paper.

They said a cigarette contained about 4,000 types of chemicals, including
poisonous and carcinogenic substances.

Pollution from the chemicals had an effect on non-smokers and the
environment, they added.