Strict regulations required to reduce number of smokers

Strict regulations and their consistent enforcement are required in Indonesia to reduce the number of smokers and protect the future of young people from the health hazards of smoking.

Indonesia is the only country in the Asia-Pacific region that has not ratified the World Health Organization`s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires members to ban all tobacco advertising, including sponsorships and promotions, and impose no-smoking zones.

This condition has led activists to describe Indonesia`s programs to fight tobacco addiction, especially among young smokers, as being "the worst in the world."

Official data show that more than 60 percent of Indonesian men are smokers and more than 43 million children live with smokers.

As the world`s fifth largest tobacco market, the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Indonesia third in terms of the number of smokers in the world.

Therefore, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih has said additional efforts should be made to prevent non-communicable disease which was caused by tobacco.

According to her, the prevalence of smoking in Indonesia had been continuously increased but the implementation of smoke-free zones in several districts was expected to reduce the smoking habit.

Meanwhile, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said in Denpasar on Monday that changing smoking habit took time and perseverance that could be pushed through the law enforcement effort.

"Effective protection will be obtained when the people themselves understand the rights of their lives and actively take action to protect themselves and their environment from someone else`s cigarette smoke," Mangku Pastika said.

Speaking at Provincial Legislative Assembly (DPRD) plenary meeting to discuss Regional Regulation Draft (Raperda) on cigarettes-free areas, the governor reminded smokers in the province to smoke outside the buildings or in the open air.

"We ask smokers to smoke in designated places. This is all aimed for our common health," Pastika said, adding that smoking habit without the constraint has become an accepted social norm for years.

He said that if there was any attempt to avoid the cigarette smoke of others, it was more generally because of impaired convenience rather than the awareness of threatening health risks.

The governor said permissive attitude towards smoking in any place without any restricting rules has made the smokers feel entitled to smoke anywhere without realizing that they have violated the rights of others.

"Most of the active smokers actually do not care if their cigarette smoke harm the non-smokers because for years they have been

spoiled by the environment to smoke anywhere and any place as they wish," the governor said.

Therefore he asserted that the government was obliged to establish an effective regulation to protect the non-smoking community.

He said the government`s seriousness could be seen from the continuous campaigns in cooperation with the managers of public places and workplaces to step up the people`s understanding of the dangers of smoking.

Tobacco-related diseases are some of the biggest killer in the world today and are cited as one of the biggest causes of premature death in industrialized countries. 

Among the diseases that can be caused by smoking are vascular stenosis, lung cancer, hearth attacks, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Therefore the government is trying to deter people from smoking with anti-smoking campaigns, stressing the harmful long-term effects of smoking.

Passive smoking, or secondhand smoking, which affects people in the immediate vicinity of smokers, is a major reason for the enforcement of smoking bans.

Mangku Pastika pointed out that the law must be enforced to stop individuals smoking at public places such as restaurants, hospitals, places of worship, public transportation, work places, bus and railway stations, and schools.

It is because the future of 80 million Indonesian children is at stake as the cigarette producers were intentionally aiming children as their future market through massive TV advertisements and sponsorships on activities in which teenagers involved the most.

More than 10 percent of Indonesian children reportedly smoke a cigarette before the age of 10.

A two-year old boy from Sumatra in 2010 made global headlines from having a 40-a-day cigarette habit and thus toprevent school children from smoking, the mayor of Jambi in Jambi province, Bambang Priyanto has imposed a ban on teachers for smoking at school because the habit could be a bad example for the students.

"I affirm here that teachers should not smoke at school because it can be emulated by the students. If necessary I will issue a no smoking rule at school," the mayor said in Jambi recently.

Bambang admitted that during his visits to schools in Jambi, he found the teachers, even headmasters enjoyed smoking regardless of the danger for the students.

Such a condition, according to the mayor, was very risky for the students to emulate the bad habit of their teachers at school. 

He said the smoking habit of the teachers at school would ruin the future of the students themselves

"Smoking can gradually develop into consuming drugs," he said, adding that in whatever circumstances teachers should not give a bad example to their students.

Bambang added that besides banning smoking at school, Jambi city administration through the education office has also formed a team of Anti-drug and HIV/AIDS Student Movement.

He said each of the Higher Secondary Schools (SMA) in Jambi had been instructed to send 20 of its students to participate in

national training and counseling on the dangers of smoking and HIV/AIDS.

Bambang said 120 students from all the Higher Secondary Schools in Jambi have officially been confirmed as team of Anti Smoking and HIV/AIDS Movement.

"After undergoing the national training and counseling, they will routinely provide counseling for other students through various activities at school in an effort to eliminate smoking and drugs use among the students," Bambang said

Source: ANTARA