Tobacco's health impacts too constly

Mon, 06/02/2008 10:20 AM  |  National

World No Tobacco Day, which falls May 31, will be confronted with a continuing rise in the number of child and teenage smokers in the country. The National Commission for Child Protection says the rise is attributable to widespread cigarette ads, including on television and billboards, in addition to a large number of cigarette sponsorships of youth events. However, the body's recent call for the government to ratify the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) -- which bans all cigarette ads and sponsorships -- has not received the expected response. No wonder, as the cigarette industry has been the country's largest taxpayer for years. The commission chairman Seto Mulyadi spoke to The Jakarta Post's Erwida Maulia on the issue.

Question: What is the current tobacco penetration rate among teenagers and children?

Answer: With all these cigarette ads and sponsorships, the number of young smokers increased 100 percent from 2001 to 2004. Nearly 25 percent of children between the age of 13 and 15 smoke, and now some children start smoking as early as five. We have reached the point where cigarettes are seriously damaging our children's health and mental development.

How has this happened?

Children often see models smoking on television, billboards and everywhere else, and they are tempted to smoke. If smoking is described as something cool or elegant, then children will be influenced. They will prefer smoking to consuming fruit, juices or vegetables because they see smoking as cool.

Children may start smoking if older people around them smoke, but what has influenced them most are the cigarette ads.

The cigarette industry is the country's largest taxpayer, which is likely the reason for the government's reluctance to totally ban cigarette ads. What is your stance on this?

Well, we have to do a real count. Our country may receive Rp 60 trillion (US$6.45 billion) in revenue from the cigarette industry, but the amount of money we have to spend to treat the many illnesses caused by smoking is much larger, or twice the total annual revenue from cigarette firms -- exceeding Rp 100 trillion.

Through garnering income through cigarette taxes, we are actually suffering financial losses due to the impact of cigarettes on our health.

So, please, try to take an objective view. Cigarettes will make this country more miserable. For example, in rural areas, the addictive nature of cigarettes causes people to spend their money on cigarettes rather than on eating healthily or sending their children to school, despite the fact that cigarettes can cause life threatening illnesses.

We have to learn from our neighboring countries. Even Cambodia, which is not as developed a country as ours, has ratified the FCTC and will soon conform to all articles of the convention.

Smoking is a gateway to narcotics and other dangerous substances. If we combat drugs on a large scale, why don't we combat cigarettes too? We know cigarettes are addictive. Cigarette ads are therefore in violation of the 2002 Law on Child Protection, which specifies the government is obliged to protect children from addictive substances.

What are the National Commission on Child Protection's efforts to enforce the banning of cigarette ads?

We are urging the government to ratify the convention, and totally ban all cigarette ads, promotion activities and sponsorships. We want cigarette companies to stop using their names or the names of their products in their corporate social responsibility programs, such as in scholarships or in athlete training. Cigarette sponsorship at sporting events is very unethical because it opposes the idea of improving health.

We will continually shout out against and oppose cigarette ads, sponsorships and promotion activities so as to remind the community of the importance of saving Indonesia's next generations.

We are also conducting "no smoking" campaigns for children through a number of activities, including in an upcoming seminar that will take place in July as part of the commemoration of National Children's Day.

We will continually build their awareness on the impacts of smoking on their health, while explaining that the habit cannot give them clear heads or mend their emotional pains.

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