Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the operation, on May 12 and May 13, held in conjunction with “World No Tobacco Day”, was aimed at enforcing a ban on smoking in public or crowded areas under Regulation 11(1) of the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations (CTPR) 2004.

From the operations carried out, smoking in banned areas were mostly detected at shopping complexes (255 offences), followed by government premises (194), hospitals/clinics (86) and airports (77), he said in a statement here yesterday.

He added that enforcement of Rule 12(1) and 13(1) was also carried out, holding premise owners responsible for not displaying the no-smoking sign and selling cigarettes to minors.

Dr Noor Hisham said similar operations would be held indefinitely to raise public awareness on smoking activities nationwide.

The World Health Organisation has set May 31 as “World No Tobacco Day”.

– BERNAMA