Students from medical schools across the country staged a major rally in Jakarta on Sunday calling on the government to take firm steps on tobacco, such as ratifying the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and implementing the 2003 presidential decree on cigarette security.

"We reject tobacco and any of its products," Krida Wacana Christian University (Ukrida)'s Stefano Leatemia said.

He added that the government was doing little to control tobacco. "The tobacco industry is thriving and if we look at our society, even children have started to smoke," he said, referring to Palembang toddler Ardi Rizal, seen smoking in videos that have been widely circulated on the Internet and have drawn worldwide attention after being uploaded on YouTube a few months ago.

The students distributed oranges to smokers passing the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, asking them to change their smoking habits. "We want to ask smokers to quit smoking by replacing the cigarettes they smoke with an orange," Stefano said.

Yudhistira, from Trisakti University, said they would also sign a petition to reject tobacco. Sunday's rally drew 280 medical students from 10 universities.

The participating universities included the University of Indonesia, Padjajaran University, Yarsi University, Trisakti University, Ukrida, Atma Jaya University, the Indonesian Islamic University of Yogyakarta, General Achmad Yani University, General Soedirman University and Swadaya Gunung Jati University.

Last week, a seminar held the Indonesian Cancer Foundation to commemorate World No Tobacco Day heard concerns on the rising prevalence of smoking by women due to the government's inability to control cigarette advertising targeting women.

The National Economics Census said the prevalence of smoking by women increased from 1.7 percent in 1995 to 5.06 percent in 2007.

"Even though the percentage of women smoking is still far below the number of men smoking, we see that the numbers are increasing," Fuad Baradja, the head of the Indonesian Smoking Control Foundation's counseling and education division, said.

He said the cigarette industry targeted women. "Cigarette marketing to men has peaked," he said. "So the industry is shifting to women."

Fuad also said the cigarette industry was changing the traditional image of women.

"In an earlier era, women who smoked were perceived as rebellious and wild," he said. "Now, a lot of cigarette ads portray women as beautiful, stylish and cool."

The government is deliberating a regulation draft to control tobacco advertising. The draft has drawn protests from the tobacco industry, who claim the regulation would jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of tobacco farmers.

A 2007 report by the World Health Organization said 900 million smokers in the world (84 percent of the total) were from developing countries, including Indonesia.

The report also stated that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2006, with an average of one death every 6.5 seconds. (map)

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