Cosmetics Bill To Regulate Beauty Outlets To Be Tabled

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- The Cosmetics Bill, to be tabled in the Cabinet in two more weeks, will empower the government to check the misuse of cosmetic products and beauty tools by beauty practitioners, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Thursday.
He said if the Cabinet accepted the proposed bill, his ministry would call those involved in the beauty profession to provide feedback.
"The tabling of the proposed bill in the Cabinet is needed to explain the rationale of the bill," he told reporters after presenting prizes to the winners of the "Ellgy Plus 1 Carat Diamond Contest", here Thursday.
He said there was no law or regulation currently to check the activities of beauty professionals and the tools used in their activities, which posed difficulties to the authorities in taking action against erring practitioners.
"For medical practitioners who practise beauty procedures, they are under the provision of the Medical Act 1971. But for those who are not in this group, they are not subjected to the act...so we will have a new act to monitor and control their practices," he said.
"Actually, we want to uplift the (image of the) profession. Not to stop them from being involved in the beauty practices because we are aware that the field is developing rapidly and has become an important economic sector.
"However, at the same time, we don't want others to be cheated, helpless and could not do anything. We want to regulate the premises, the profession, the practice and the tools to determine whether they are safe or not," he said.
He added that many tools, especially those used for slimming sessions, were still used despite being proven not to be effective.
On some health or beauty practitioners who simply took their customers' blood sample for tests, Dr Abdul Latiff said the problem could be solved when the Pathology Bill which had been presented to the Attorney-General, was passed in the Parliament.
He said under the existing legal provisions, only a doctor could take blood samples for tests and even though the existing laws could be applied for the offence, it was not airtight enough to enable legal actions to be taken against beauty and health practitioners.