Health education suggested for smokers

Irawaty Wardany ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Mon, 06/02/2008 10:20 AM  |  Bali

The government should focus on educating smokers on health risks and on how to beat the habit rather than trying to prohibit cigarettes, a lung specialist says.

"Don't prohibit people from smoking because the smokers will most likely reject the prohibition and continue their habit," Dr.Ida Bagus Rai said Saturday during a talk show, "Pack Behind", organized by the Medical School of state-run Udayana University to commemorate the World's No Tobacco Day, which falls every May 31.

He said the government and all related institutions should change their current strategies in dealing with active smokers.

"It would be better if the government educated smokers on the negative effects of smoking and let the smokers make their own judgments and decisions," he said.

"Just show them the facts; the severe health ramifications of the habit to stimulate their motivation to stop smoking."

Indonesia has one of the largest smoking populations in the world. A legislator said recently more than one third of Indonesians were smokers, and it is estimated that 1,174 Indonesian die every day from smoking related diseases.

Rai said it was more difficult to deal with addicted smokers than drug abusers because smokers were totally dependent on cigarettes to make them feel comfortable.

"The nicotine in cigarettes takes only seven seconds to reach a receptor in the brain which will then stimulate the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and well being."

He said that when the level of dopamine decreased, the smokers had to supply more nicotine to maintain the same level of pleasure.

"That process keeps repeating over and over again," he said, adding that smokers could not be treated solely by pharmaceutical therapy but rather demanded behavioral therapy too.

"Around 70 percent of people who quit smoking also have to undergo behavioral therapy," he said.

Hypnosis therapist Gobind Vasdev said stubbornness was a part of human nature.

"So it will be useless to say don't smoke to smokers", he said adding that as a former smoker he knew that most smokers were aware of the dangers of the habit, but did not know how to stop, and that they just ignored anti-smoking campaigns.

"We can see that most anti-tobacco advertisements are presented in written form. Unfortunately, a large number of people cannot interpret the writings very well," he said.

Every cigarette pack in Indonesia carries a warning that states smoking can cause cancer, heart attack, impotency and complications during pregnancy.

Gobind said humans were more likely to take notice of campaigns that used pictures.

He said some countries in Europe and Malaysia had altered their anti-smoking campaigns to focus more on visual-based messages that depicted the effects of smoking, including in one case an image showing extensive lung damage.

Made Kembar Sribudi, an avid smoker and a lecturer of the school of economics of state-run Udayana University, said if the government was really concerned about the dangers of smoking then it should close down all the cigarette companies, and find alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers and the hundreds of thousands of employees of the cigarette industry.

"Unfortunately the government does not want to lose the biggest contributor to state income and chooses the easiest way to handle the problem."

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