PUTRAJAYA (Bernama) - Public and national parks in Malaysia have been gazetted as no-smoking zones effective Feb 1 to help protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, said Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah on Friday (Feb 3).

The move, he said, was also in line with Article 8 of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of which Malaysia had been a signatory since 2005.

"This expansion of no-smoking zones is aimed at curbing smoking in public places so that the smoking culture is not accepted by society," he said in a statement.

With this latest gazetting, Dr Noor Hisham said all areas at public parks were no-smoking areas except for open car parks.

As for national and state parks, he said smoking is banned at three areas - observatory towers, camp sites and canopy walks - as well as areas within 5m from the entrance and exit of canopy walks.

Offenders can be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed not more than two years if convicted.