Reducing the Number of Smokers in Indonesia, Is It Possible?

     

     Nowadays, smoking in Indonesia is a commonplace. According to Wikipedia, in 2012 there were 57 million smokers in Indonesia in which 63% of whom are men and 5% are women.  This means that 34% of the population is smokers. 
World Health Organization says that Indonesia ranked as the third of smokers after China and India.  Two out of three of men in Indonesia are smokers.  These figures are quite alarming since smoking habit itself has caused the deaths of around 500,000 people every year, according to the report of International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. While Based on a report from Global Youth Tobacco Survey in 2006, 37.3% of Indonesian youth between the aged of 13-15 have ever smoked cigarette and 30,9% of them have smoked their first cigarette before reaching the age of 10 years old.  

This findings concern many people because most of the smokers are from the poor families.  A general practitioner for low-income people says that most of his patients never thinking about quitting until they get sick. To make it worse, even children become smokers in Indonesia since there is no age limit on buying cigarettes. A Youtube video of two-year-old toddler, Ardi Rizal, who smoked until 40 cigarettes a day showed that smoking addiction in Indonesia has become epidemic which needs urgent handling. Because of that, many people in Indonesia talk about whether smoking should be banned because they think it is the best method to drastically reduce the number of smokers.  The contra side says that it is not a good method to ban smoking since many people have been so addicted to smoking and that  the cigarette industry share income to regional budget  and that many tobacco farmers will lose their job if the cigarette factories are close.  There are at least three alternatives to reduce the number of smokers in Indonesia.

     The first alternative to solve this problem is to change the health warnings in cigarettes pack. Cigarette manufacturers do not only promote their products but also give some health warnings of smoking. Since 2014, cigarette manufacturers are required to put pictorial warnings on the danger of smoking. Pictorial warnings illustrate, for example,  oral and lung cancer due to smoking.  This health warning must cover around 30% to 50% of the cigarette's pack they must be easy to read with straight-to-the-point words or pictures. This hopefully will make people aware of the negative effects of tobacco and deter them from smoking.  However,  it turns out that the cigarette manufacturer seem reluctant to obey the regulation since they only put small text that states: "Smoking can cause cancer, heart attack, impotence and harms pregnancy and fetal development” all without any pictures. As a comparison, Thailand puts a bigger size in its packs of cigarette than that in Indonesia in terms of health warnings which combine words and pictures. Besides that, the manufacturers often give misleading promotional statement in the packs such as “light” and “mild”. It is public deception because the words “mild” and "light' are used to convince the smokers that they use cigarettes that are not dangerous for them. The fact is that products with tar have similar negative effects with those without tar. Besides that, the manufacturers should include the contents of tar and nicotine in their cigarette packs.

     The second alternative is to stop advertisements on cigarette. The existing government regulation 18/2003 in Indonesia states that any manufactures of tobacco products are permitted to advertise their products in all forms of media. This advertisement makes many people want to buy the cigarette because high numbers of cigarette consumers of one manufacturer  will become good image to the product while neglecting the negative effects of smoking. They are also permitted to sponsor events even though are subjected to the advertising and promotion regulations such as banning on giving free sample or gifts. Generally, the cigarettes manufacturers use indirect method such as sponsoring a sport event or music concert and giving discount voucher of the product or the ads. This indirect method is effective to create a positive image of cigarettes for adolescent.  In fact, the government has the role to limit or to stop the ads of cigarette. In Singapore, for example, the manufacturers can obey not to advertise cigarettes on television, but  it does not happen in Indonesia. Lots of cigarette advertising on television clearly has a negative impact, because it kills common sense. As a result, the audience, mostly the young, may forget the warning "smoking kill". Advertisement on TV is perhaps the most effective way of influencing people's minds but in terms of promoting cigarettes it is also the most misleading advertising.

      The third alternative is that the government should make strict laws about cigarette. Increasing the price (or taxes) of cigarette is the best way to reduce the number of smokers in Indonesia, 70% of whom are adult people and 60% are poor people.  They are not aware that becoming smokers  waste their money that should be spent on more useful items such as buying milk for their children. Because of that, many children from the poor family can't live better in their future. Increasing the price of cigarettes makes many people, especially the poor people, unable to buy cigarettes and it can also reduce the number of smokers in Indonesia. Besides increasing the price, the government should make stricter law about smoking in public places. This is because in Indonesia, smokers can buy cigarette and smoke  anywhere.  

     In short, the increasing number of smokers among the adolescents is very disturbing. World Health Organization (WHO) gives a warning that in year 2020-2030 tobacco will kill 10.000 people every year. The best way to make people stop and change their image to cigarettes is to make good public health strategies to reduce the number of smokers. As mention above, the government and the people should hand in hand to make healthy society even though the strategies may give economic impacts to cigarette industries or even to the state income.  We can also do something to make a healthy country to terminate this problem by telling and reminding the smokers of the dangers of smoking.

By Anonymous