Sunday May 12, 2013

MySihat considers making Kuching Waterfront smoking-free zone

KUCHING: One of Sarawak’s popular tourist destinations, the Kuching Waterfront, could become a totally smoking-free zone.

Malaysian Health Promotion Board (MySihat) chief executive Datuk Dr Yahya Baba said a proposal had been made for Kuching Waterfront to join the Mulu National Park World Heritage Site, which include hotels and restaurants, as a “totally smoking-free zone”.

“Anti-smoking campaign is our number one priority,” Dr Yahya said during the opening of a seminar on alcohol abuse here yesterday.

“We’ve included Limbang in our list. Mulu was included early on. And now, we are considering adding the Kuching Waterfront.”

Dr Yahya did not specify when the waterfront, around 1.2km in length, could be a totally smoking-free zone, but areas like Mulu would only come under the plan in 2017.

He said anti-smoking campaigns were slowly but surely gaining acceptance among Malaysians.

“Internationally, anti-smoking campaign has been widely accepted and gaining traction among the people. It is a fact that too many people smoke,” said the chief executive of MySihat, a statutory body under the Health Ministry.

In February, MySihat launched the Blue Ribbon Campaign, an international awareness effort on the harmful side effects of tobacco smoking.

Citing the Global Adult Tobacco Survey then, Dr Yahya said the study showed a growing public demand for smoking-free environments.

Eighty-four percent of the public supported a 100% ban on smoking in restaurants.

The survey revealed that 92.2% of adults believed smoking causes serious illness and 85.8% of adults believed that second-hand smoke inhalation can cause serious illnesses in non-smokers.

Malaysians are among the world’s heaviest smokers. According to the Resource Centre of the South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, the smoking prevalence rate among Malaysian men is over 50%.

However, given that an increasing number of young people and even children, as young as 13, have grown addicted to smoking, it means the proportion of smokers is far higher.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number of female smokers in Malaysia, especially young women, girls and even expectant mothers, statistics show.

According to another study, more than a third of Malaysian boys between the ages of 13 and 15 smoke.

The same study estimated that a typical Malaysian smoker consumed an average of 539 sticks a year.

MySihat estimated about four in ten adults, or equivalent to 7.6 million people, are exposed to tobacco smoke at home. About 2.3 million adults who worked indoor reported that they were exposed to second-hand smoke.

Seven in 10 adults or 8.6 million who visited restaurants were exposed to second-hand smoke.

Dr Yahya was speaking at the launch of a year-long collaboration between Dayak Bidayuh National Association and MySihat on raising alcohol abuse prevention.

News

Sunday May 12, 2013

MySihat considers making Kuching Waterfront smoking-free zone