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ndonesia has come under international censure for its inaction to curb the alarming surge in its number of smokers, with elementary school children seeing the most exponential increase in tobacco consumption.

Participants in the 9th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT) 2010 reported that Indonesia experienced a 400 percent increase in smokers between the ages of five to nine and a 40 percent increase for those between 10 and 14 from 1995 through 2007.

By 2007, 65.6 percent of males smoked and the number of female smokers tripled from 1.7 percent to 5.2 percent, the conference heard. The conference also pointed out that Indonesia’s tobacco-related death toll stood at approximately 200,000 people per year.

The 700 delegates from 41 countries attending the conference, held in Sydney, Australia, from Oct. 9 to 10, voiced their concern with the country’s impending public health disaster due to the government’s reluctance to accede to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

The WHO FCTC is an international treaty among 168 parties designed to decelerate the global tobacco epidemic through each country’s implementation of the convention’s provisions.

“It was disconcerting that Indonesia was placed under the spotlight by officials of other countries,” said Alex Papilaya from the Tobacco Control Support Centre (TCSC).

He added that Indonesia was the first country the APACT issued a declaration to. The declaration, he said, urged the government to sign the treaty and protect children and teenagers from tobacco.

“Indonesia is the only country in ASEAN, which has yet to sign the FCTC,” he said.

He added that the conference issued four recommendations and was “putting the health of its people before the profits of tobacco companies” as the foremost item.

The conference also urged the government to ban tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorships such as those at music and sports events, he said, adding that international artists and athletes performing in Indonesia should refuse to participate in activities that tobacco companies sponsor.

“The music bands Wolfmother and The Vines have to make public statements that they will not play at tobacco sponsored events,” he said about the fourth recommendation regarding the two bands that performed at the Java Rockin’Land concert sponsored by Gudang Garam tobacco company.

Hakim Sorimuda Pohan from the Tobacco Control Support Center added that the government would risk alienation from countries that were increasingly aware of the dangers of tobacco consumption.

“Regulating tobacco by the government is one way to reduce one of the preventable deaths caused by tobacco consumption,” he said, adding that the government could sponsor sporting events instead by raising excise fees on tobacco products. (gzl)