KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — The culture of traders who sell smoking products, such as electronic cigarettes or vaping gadgets to anyone regardless of age, makes it difficult for the government to control the sale and purchase of such products in the market.

Senate president Tan Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said this was because most traders in the country do not care who buys the products at their premises, since they are only thinking about profits, instead.

"In our society, even traders do not follow the law. In England, if you want to (sell) buy something that is forbidden to children, the dealer will not sell it. But here (Malaysia) as long as the money is shown first, it doesn’t matter how old (the buyer) is, they will sell anyway.

"So culture is more important than anything else. If not, it will be hard for the government. But the government is still abused by the community because of this (current) law,” he said in response to the answer given by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni in Dewan Negara today.

Earlier, Lukanisman said the presentation of the Smoking Products Control Bill for Public Health 2023 empowers the government to regulate the sale and purchase of vape products in the market.

He said the bill can help instil public awareness that the government is committed to combating the use of vaping by children in the future.

"This issue is very close to the community because it involves health. Without legislation, this vape is sold everywhere so that children as young as six or seven years old are influenced to use vape as a more trendy lifestyle.

"As a result of the widespread use of vape, there are diseases such as Evali (vaping-related lung injury). The treatment to cure such illness is around RM150,000 for a period of 12 days and this is a high cost. For that reason, we need to speed up the presentation of this bill,” he said.

He said this in response to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Dominic Lau Hoe Chai who asked whether the government was fully responsible for protecting the young generation from the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes or vaping. — Bernama