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Health omnibus bill weakens tobacco control mechanisms
Tobacco consumption, which continues to escalate, poses a threat to the country's vision of achieving Golden Indonesia 2045.
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Anti-tobacco activists demonstrate on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Feb. 15, 2015. (JP/P.J. Leo)
"Indonesia’s tobacco emergency", "endemic smoking", "tobacco industry paradise" and other attributions indicating an abnormal, emergency state have been proclaimed for more than a decade, but after changes of year, regime, president and ministers, everything stays the same.
Amid a global decline in tobacco consumption, Indonesia has become somewhat of an anomaly. The 2021 Global Adults Tobacco Survey (GATS) shows an increase in the number of smokers from 2011. Over a period of 10 years, the number of smokers has increased by at least 8 million people, equivalent to 1.3 times the population of Singapore.
When it comes to teenagers and children, things are not much more encouraging. Findings from a national survey conducted by the Indonesia Institute for Social Development (IISD) in collaboration with the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IPM) on students in 175 regencies and cities at the end of 2022 found that 10.67 percent of respondents were active smokers and 27.6 percent admitted to having tried smoking. Even more alarming is that, based on the data, more than 10 percent of student smokers reported having started smoking before the age of 10.
Development barriers
Tobacco consumption, which continues to escalate, poses a threat to the country’s vision of achieving Golden Indonesia 2045. It is concerning that 8 out of 10 productive-age men (25 to 40 years old) are entangled in cigarette addiction.
The government has made strenuous efforts to reduce the high prevalence of stunting, but ironically, it overlooks the contributing risk factors, including high tobacco product consumption. Research conducted by Professor Laura Anderko of Georgetown University in 2010 found that children exposed to cigarette smoke, either directly or indirectly, during pregnancy, were three times more likely to experience learning disabilities.
Similarly, a study conducted by the Wijaya Kusuma University School of Medicine in 2012 found that 73.68 percent of malnourished toddlers had parents who were smokers.
