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Indoor smoking hits kids hardest
Baby dies from pneumonia after being exposed to cigarette smoke Children’s lungs more vulnerable than adults
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Workers prepare tobacco leaves to roll them into cigars at the Rizona Baru factory in Temanggung, Central Java. JP/Agung Parameswara
(JP/Agung Parameswara)
O
n July 17, the family of Fitria Indah Lestari was in a festive mood. Welcoming her secondborn, a healthy baby boy, her family held an aqiqah, an Islamic ritual where people offer a sacrifice as an expression of gratitude following the birth of a child. She invited friends and relatives to her house in Tangerang, Banten.
The 21-day-old baby was sleeping in Fitria’s bedroom when visitors asked the mother to bring him out to be presented for a blessing. The blessing, in which people chanted prayers and cut the baby’s hair, went on for no longer than five minutes.
Fitria’s heart was filled with happiness, she recalled. But at the same time she was uncomfortable with the presence of three men smoking inside the house during the event.
The joy faded two days later when her son started to cough and suffer breathing difficulties. She and her husband took the baby to a hospital on July 27. The situation then spiraled down from there with their son being admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with severe pneumonia as revealed in an examination. The doctor taking care of her son suggested that it was caused by recent exposure to cigarette smoke. The baby died on July 30.
“It was only five minutes my child was outside my room but the consequences were fatal,” Fitria told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Fitria shared her story in a Facebook post that went viral last month in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, especially in the presence of children.
Adults smoking in the presence of children and babies is a relatively common sight in Indonesia. Smoking is deeply entrenched in the lifestyle of millions in the country, the second-largest cigarette market in the world after China. The industry has massive campaigns targeting young people as future consumers.
