Antismoking campaigners face reignited fight over tar, nicotine

JAKARTA (JP): Health activists will have to stifle that breath of relief. They may soon have to start their antismoking campaigns all over again.

Only two months after being signed by then president B.J. Habibie, the new government of President Abdurrahman Wahid expressed agreement on Dec. 10 to review the country's first regulation on cigarette tar and nicotine levels.

Under regulation No. 81/1999, each cigarette must contain no more than 1.5. milligrams of nicotine and 20 milligrams of tar.

The regulation, which intended to protect people from smoking- related problems, also designated more nonsmoking areas, including in public places and workplaces, and restricted cigarette ads.

The government's agreement to review the regulation was a setback for health activists, who campaigned for years for a regulation covering the industry.

Chairman of the National Commission for the Prevention of Smoking Problems Merdias Almatsier said it would not be easy to revise the regulation, which was drafted after consulting experts and representatives of cigarette companies.

He urged the government to carefully study the regulation before carrying through with its review.

"There should be a study to back up the government's agreement (to review the regulation). The study will reveal whether the regulation makes sense or not. And if the study says cigarette makers can do it, there's no need to review it at all," Merdias told The Jakarta Post. The commission's members include some health groups and non-governmental organizations.

"If the government says it will review the regulation without making any study, the government will lose its credibility."

Smoking is banned in only a few public places in the country. Jakarta and other cities are havens for smokers as most Indonesians still consider smoking to be a sign of maturity, achievement and sophistication, ignoring harmful health consequences ranging from heart disease, asthma and lung cancer to its link to impotence and premature ejaculation.

These attitudes ranked Indonesians as the world's fourth least aware smokers in 1996, after China, the United States and Japan.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Cigarette Producers (GAPRI) Ismanu Soemiran told journalists after meeting the President that the revision was necessary to give small cigarette makers a chance to survive.

He said the revised regulation should set different levels of tar and nicotine for clove-blended cigarettes because clove cigarettes possessed a higher nicotine content than regular cigarettes.

He warned that if the regulation was imposed, many cigarette producers would become bankrupt. This, in return, will create unemployment.

According to the association, the cigarette industry currently provides employment for 6.4 million people, including 170,000 directly employed by cigarette companies, 2.3 million tobacco farmers, 1.9 million clove farmers, 1.15 million people working in distribution and another 900,000 people working in related services.

The association warned the government the regulation would also punish itself in terms of lower income from excise tax and predicted a slash of the government's excise income by 50 percent once the regulation became effective.

The government is targeting collecting some US$1.5 billion in excise tax this fiscal year from cigarette sales.

No fear

Merdias said there was no need to fear unemployment since cigarette firms were given from two years to 10 years to adjust tar and nicotine levels to meet the regulation's requirement.

The window of two years is for machine-rolled cigarette makers, most of which are giant multinationals. Clove-blended cigarette makers -- which are mostly small and medium local companies lacking the technology to measure the content of tar and nicotine in their products -- permitted between five years and 10 years.

"Cigarette companies should give the right information to its workers about the regulation, don't mislead them, such as telling them they will be fired or the companies will go bankrupt because of the regulation," said Merdias, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association.

With cigarette companies' huge profits all these years, it will not be difficult for them to obtain the technology to meet the required tar and nicotine levels as stipulated in the regulation, he said.

"But if the study says there's need for a longer time for the companies, especially for small scale companies, to adjust -- as long as the additional period is making sense and based on accurate data and facts, we can accept it," Merdias said.

"This regulation is intended to minimize cigarettes' side effects and to be able to lower cigarette consumption, especially among teenagers."

Indonesians smoke 202 billion cigarettes per year, almost 90 percent of which are clove cigarettes.

Compared to other Asian countries which have imposed maximum standards for cigarette tar and nicotine levels, Indonesia has been late in protecting its people from smoking-related diseases.

A 1994 survey of 1,000 smokers in Jakarta found that 31 percent started smoking between the ages of 10 years and 17 years, 45 percent between 15 and 22 and 11 percent before they were 10. (ste)