The GEG bill, formally known as the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill 2022, was applauded as a visionary effort to strengthen tobacco control by 18 international health-based organisations, including South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance and Union for International Cancer in a statement released on Sept 30.
"Countries and jurisdictions that have been successfully reducing their adult smoking prevalence, such as Panama , New Zealand , Hong Kong , Australia , Finland , Singapore , and Canada , have applied stringent tobacco control measures according to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to which Malaysia is also a Party."
The organisations reaffirmed their stance on tobacco products and said that tobacco products should never have been legalised in the first place.