We were there inside the seminar room of Dewan Kekwa the next day before 8.30am. Today we glad for Dr. Lely has come all the way from AIMST to visit here. She joined us for the first session for at least 1 and a half hour. We truly enjoyed her company during that brief period of time.
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| ~ (From left to right) SL, Surender, Dr. Lely, Shayridah ~ |
Our class with Mr. David started not long after that and went on for another 4 hours with just a single 5 minute break at around 10am. He was charming guy in which the way he spoke really captured our full attention. He enlightened us on the duties performed by his enforcement unit and how his unit carried out operations. Here's what we would like to share with you:
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| Organization chart of Inspectorate Unit |
The duties of Mr.David's unit are mainly about how to:
1. enforce the Public Health legislation under Ministry of Health
2. carry out spot-checks and spying in response to complaints
3. prepare paperwork for operations and training programmes
The Public Health legislation under MOH are the -
1. Food Act 1983
2. Tobacco Control Regulations 1993
3. Destruction of Disease Bearing Insects Act 1975
4. Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases
Important public health laws pertaining to food hygience and sanitation, tobacco control and infectious disease control. This is because cases of food poisoning, dengue fever, food and water borne diseases still occur sporadically in Kedah.
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| ~ Mr. David and his attentive audience ~ |
During that session, you wouldn't believe this - Dr. Lely even asked him some questions and he didn't mind to answer them. Oh, there are more to come - we learnt from him that there's NO WAY we can have an umbrella advertising Malboro etc. There won't be any time we can see advertisement promoting Dunhill etc on TV, International Games or Vans on road...
Our 5-minute break became our most precious moment in which we could give way to the call of Nature, and to tuck in something just to soothe our grumbling tummies!
At 2.30pm, we all gathered at the lobby of Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim (HSAH) - and that's our first field trip. Three Malay enforcement officers went there to meet us.
The supervisor first briefed us on the procedure of carrying out the operation of fining people smoking at prohibited areas. The usual locations they had the spot checks are Central Square and HSAH.
Let me put this laconically - Malaysia's tobacco control laws under the Food Act 1983 was enforced in 1994. The objectives are:
1. reduce prevalence of smoking to <10%
2. prevent adolescents smoking
3. encourage smokers to quit
4. reduce risk of second hand smoke to the public and work place
5. establish alternatives to tobacco growing
The supervisor also told us the areas of strictly no smoking:
-hospital/clinic
-inside any air-conditioned room such as theater, shopping complexes, airport etc
-inside lift, public toilet
-in goverment premises
-at petrol station, bus station, and even internet cafe!
Shortly after that, they brought us to the motor parking lot of HSAH. Two young men were caught red handed and were handed compound of RM250. Sad to say, these 2 men were ignorant to the warning sign not far away from them even though they claimed to be innocent of the their action. Advice was given together with the compound.
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| We joined the enforcement unit |
The major setback faced by the team is actually when it comes to the foreigners. These people don’t have permanent address, so the tendency to repeat the offence is high. And sometime, rude smokers are hard to be dealt with – sometime police officers are needed to handled them
All in all, we had a nice day. All went well according to schedule until 4pm. Of course there are more activities for some today – and you know why!!!
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| Cigarettes as evidence |
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| Nonsmoking area |
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