Tougher regulations on tobacco

Wed, 04/09/2008 11:22 AM  |  Opinion

Increasingly heavy burdens inflicted on Indonesians by tobacco-related diseases and deaths have made it imperative for the government to ratify the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that severely restricts cigarette marketing and advertising.

It is saddening to report that Indonesia and North Korea are the only countries in Asia that have yet to sign the WHO anti-tobacco pact.

It is no wonder the country has remained a haven for cigarette companies where cigarette producers are among the most profitable companies, and owners of the biggest firms are among the wealthiest families not only in the Indonesia but in Southeast Asia.

Support for the pact could kick start a massive anti-smoking campaign nationwide because the convention imposes stringent restrictions on cigarette sales, marketing, advertising and strict codes on labeling and packaging.

Thailand, which has ratified the WHO tobacco control convention, severely restricts cigarette sales and prohibits them from being displayed in shop windows, instead demanding they be kept under shop counters. The government also demands cigarette packets display gruesome pictures of smoking-induced diseases.

However, with almost 30 percent of House members cigarette addicts and sitting in plain sight of the powerful cigarette industry lobby building, there is little hope for subscription to the convention in the near future despite the necessity for anti-smoking campaigns amid a nationwide health crisis.

Tobacco control is all about health protection.

There is not a single law that prohibits the government from issuing and enforcing regulations on tobacco control through restrictions on sales, advertisements or establishments.

Anti-tobacco lobbyists have estimated one third of Indonesians, or 76.7 million people, smoke, bolstered by a climate free of restrictions on advertising, sales to young people and public smoking places. Indonesia is the world's fifth largest cigarette producer.

Yet more tragic is that almost all surveys have concluded the majority of heavy smokers are poor and under-educated people who often spend as much as 15 percent of their daily income on cigarettes.

A study made for WHO in 2006 estimated 25 percent of all male deaths in Indonesia would be smoking related within ten years. What makes smoking a very serious threat to health, including that of passive smokers, is the fact that 90 percent of cigarettes smoked in the country are clove-blended cigarettes (kretek) which, according to scientists, deliver double the nicotine and tar of conventional tobacco cigarettes.

Although sales to minors are illegal, the law isn't policed -- schoolboys brazenly smoking in the street is a common sight. The Jakarta municipal government did try to control smoking by enacting a bylaw banning smoking in public buildings, but the same law also still required public facilities to provide smoking rooms or areas.

Worse still, enforcement of the bylaw remains lax. Even the House of Representatives defied the law by allowing its members to light up in the parliamentary chamber.

It is obviously impossible to completely and immediately ban smoking because the habit has engendered heavy addiction, and has entrenched itself into our culture.

It is neither politically or economically possible to immediately impose a complete ban on cigarette production because the industry would respond by going underground, taking it beyond government control and the tax net.

The government needs time and additional resources to help tobacco and clove farmers shift to other crops. Moreover, the government still derives almost 10 percent of its revenues from excise duty and sales taxes on cigarettes and the cigarette industry is still a major employer.

Therefore, the most effective way of mitigating the devastating impact of cigarettes without causing any abrupt negative impact on the economy and fiscal revenues is to conduct a nationwide anti-smoking campaign to make people understand the full risks carried by smoking.

Education should be an integral part of the campaign because smoking has become a deeply-rooted habit, especially among farmers, who are generally oblivious to the effects.

However, an information campaign alone will not be sufficient. It must be supported by properly enforced government regulations that set punitively high prices on cigarettes, completely ban smoking in public buildings and cigarette advertising and require cigarette packages to bear grotesque pictorial health warnings.

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