Opinion by Mohideen Abdul Kader, President of the Consumers Association of Penang
The Penang Consumers Association urges all MPs to support the Poisons Board’s decision to keep nicotine as a controlled substance under the Poisons Act.
We urge the government to pass the Generational Endgame (GEG) bill, which would make tobacco and vaping illegal for anyone born after 2007. Current events and scientific evidence support the call for GEG.
Allowing electronic nicotine delivery systems and heated tobacco products would contradict the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s goal of de-normalizing smoking and tobacco use.
Nicotine is currently classified as a Group C poison, which requires a licenced chemist or a registered medical, dental or veterinary practitioner to sell any form of nicotine-containing preparation under the Poisons Act of 1952.
The best way to prevent future generations from becoming addicted to nicotine is to follow in the footsteps of the Australians. All nicotine vaping products, including e-cigarettes, nicotine pods, and liquid nicotine, will be classified as Schedule 4 (prescription-only) medicines beginning October 1, 2021. As a result, without a doctor’s prescription, no one can purchase any of these products.
In Malaysia, accidental nicotine poisoning among children is on the rise. Between January 2015 and August 2022, the National Poison Centre at Universiti Sains Malaysia received 66 calls about vaping-related poisoning. The majority of the cases involved children aged one to four years old, with the youngest being four months.
With thousands of e-liquid variants flooding the market and sold by 3,300 known retailers, monitoring the nicotine concentration of each bottle or brand is impossible. According to the Malaysian Vape Chamber of Commerce, more than 97% of e-liquids with nicotine are available in the Malaysian market.
According to studies conducted in Europe, many of the market samples contain more than 10% of the specified amount of nicotine.
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info source – Malaysia Now