Lack of warnings on smoking danger
I refer to the letter from Mr. Graeme T. Steel published in The Jakarta Post on Sept. 14, 2000, titled A different view of smoking.
Regarding your letter about smoking, I echo your disappointment with The Jakarta Post for displaying a tobacco advertisement. However, I must take issue with the rest of your remarks concerning this newspaper's failure to acknowledge significant reasons for smoking in a recent editorial.
You stated that few smokers can be unaware of the health concerns regarding smoking. This may be correct in the expat community or with middle-class editors working in smart air conditioned offices. However, it is definitely not the case with the vast majority of Indonesian smokers who are genuinely oblivious to the real risks involved.
Because of the lack of regulations in this country, there are no health warnings or public information campaigns on the dangers of smoking. On the contrary, the Indonesian people are constantly exposed to clever advertising campaigns which, through cigarettes, sell an idea of a seductive lifestyle, far removed from reality.
Smoking doesn't allay stress. Nicotine promotes it, by causing the body's adrenal glands to release excess adrenaline; a major factor in all stress related illness. Nor does it calm the spirit or stop hunger pangs. Being a smoker means being addicted to nicotine and nicotine is a drug. So, like any other addict, when you continue to smoke, all you are doing is stopping the withdrawal pangs, topping up the nicotine and re-hooking yourself. Do you call that enjoyment?
Many Indonesian smokers are indeed poor and most of them earn less than US$1 per day. According to the Ministry of Health these people spend 30 to 40 percent of their income on cigarettes. Sadly, their addiction adds to the misery of their lives. It certainly doesn't lessen it.
Apart from lung cancer, smoking is also a huge contributory factor in heart disease, arteriosclerosis, emphysema, angina, thrombosis, bronchitis, asthma and various types of cancer. It's not just in old age either. Smoking stunts your physical and intellectual growth, it steals your youth and kills you off before your time.
I don't blame the smoker -- rich or poor. They are lured into a clever and subtle trap by the tobacco industry. No smoker ever wanted or intended to become hooked. Surely, everybody has the right to be informed of the risks. Why doesn't the government start a proper campaign? Until then, I am grateful to the Post for publishing editorials criticizing tobacco. Long may it continue to do so.
CLARE E. URWIN
Surabaya