Majority of RI population are active smokers: Expert

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 70 percent of Indonesia's population of 215 million people are active smokers, a cardiologist says.

Adnil Basha, a cardiologist working with the National Cardiovascular Center at Harapan Kita Hospital, said on Saturday that smoking in Indonesia doubled from the 1970s through the 1990s, making it the fourth largest cigarette consumer after the United States, China and Japan.

Abnil said that at least 60 percent of active smokers were poor people who had difficulty meeting their daily basic needs.

"This shows that smoking has become a national issue in Indonesia because it is not only a health issue but also an economic one," Abnil said at the opening ceremony of the Klinik Stop Merokok (Quit Smoking Clinic) at the Harapan Kita Hospital in West Jakarta.

The clinic, which will offer free services in the first month of its operation, was opened in conjunction with the World No Tobacco Day on May 31.

Adnil said the number of young female smokers aged between 15 and 18 had also increased to account for 20 percent of total youths in the age bracket.

He said the average Indonesian started smoking at the age of 10, with youths aged between 15 and 19 years old accounting for 59.6 percent of active smokers in the country.

The number of smokers among females aged 30 years old or above accounts for 30 percent of female smokers, said Adnil, adding that at least 28.3 percent of smokers coming from low-income Indonesians spend 15.6 percent of their monthly income on cigarettes.

Meanwhile, chairwoman of the Indonesian Heart Foundation (YJI), Firda Nerri A. Sani, said most people spent about 9.6 percent of their budget on cigarettes each month.

A cigarette has about 4,000 ingredients, 200 of them dangerous to health including tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide.

At least 57,000 people died of smoking-related diseases in 2001 alone, compared to four million people globally.

"It means about 11,000 people die every day in the world because of smoking, or one person every eight seconds," said Laksmiati A. Hanafiah, one of the YJI chairpersons.

"Labels saying a product is low in tar or nicotine, mild or even light make no difference when it comes to smoking-related diseases," director of the National Cardiovascular Center Aulia Sani said.

"We expect the clinic to reduce the number of active smokers in the country by 1 percent every year to achieve a healthy Indonesia in 2010," said Firda.

During the month of June, services at the clinic will be free of charge.

Earlier, health minister Achmad Sujudi said that the government would soon draft a bill on tobacco control as the country, together with 191 other members of the World Health Organization (WHO), had adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

The convention requires member countries to impose restrictions on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion, establish new labeling, as well as clean indoor air controls and strengthen legislation to clamp down on tobacco smuggling.

"Indonesia will soon ratify the convention and soon after that prepare a bill on tobacco control," Sujudi said.

The bill, he said, would be focused on limiting tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion. "Advertisements that violate the law may be banned," he said.