PENANG: The Clearinghouse for Tobacco Control (CTob) at the National Poison Centre in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is to undertake a pilot project to monitor the quality of air in public areas in Penang.
CTob head Prof Rahmat Awang said on Thursday the project was in line with CTob's call for Penang to be made a smoke-free state now that George Town has been accorded World Heritage Site status by Unesco.
A proposal on the matter was submitted to the Penang government in October, and CTob was still waiting for a reply, he said.
He also said that the project was also in line with the Malaysian government's commitment, as a signatory of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), to abide by five articles of the framework, among which was the need to legislate and implement a 100 per cent smoke-free environment to protect the Malaysian populace from the harm of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.
Rahmat said the project would be carried out using a special device known as the Personal Aerosol Monitor (PAM).
"The device is a real-time laser photometer with a built-in sampling pump that measures airborne particle mass concentration," he said.
Rahmat said monitoring the air quality in public places would create more serious public awareness of the environment, especially on the hazardous secondhand tobacco smoke in the workplace and public places.
In order to create more awareness on the danger of secondhand tobacco smoke, CTob is collaborating with the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) to create understanding on the hazards of secondhand tobacco smoke in the workplace and public places.
"There should not be any designated smoking room and exempted premises for smokers as these would pollute the surrounding air too," Rahmat lamented when referring to the moves by certain quarters not to take serious steps in stopping smoking at the workplace and public areas.
"Tobacco smoke is a cocktail of more than 4,000 chemicals, of which 69 are known to cause cancer, while secondhand smoke contains toxic gases and fine particles that damage the heart and lungs," he said.
According to research by the World Health Organisation (WHO), one person died every hour in Malaysia due to smoke-related diseases and one person died every second in the world due to the same cause.
CTob, which was established on Oct 1 2001, was jumpstarted with a RM1.5 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation of United States and was given the task to garner and disseminate information on tobacco control to all interested parties and readers, focusing in particular on countries in Southeast Asia.
Touted as the region's first clearing house, it is a one-stop base to compile and distribute data on tobacco-related information.
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