Mass media campaigns needed to combat smoking addiction
Mass media campaigns needed to combat smoking addiction
JAKARTA (Antara): A young man fishes out a pack of cigarettes
from his pocket and, as a gesture of friendship, offers the
"coffin nails" to everyone around him.
This is a very common scene. Cigarette producers often offer
free cigarettes to high schools and universities, fully aware of
the consequences.
The chances are that if some people in the crowd manage to say
no, they still won't be able to avoid the chocking smoke that the
smokers puff around the place.
Smokers are subject to tobacco's health hazards, usually the
dreaded cancer.
Data released by the Indonesian Directorate General for
Supervision of Food and Drugs shows that 41.5 percent of smokers
started the habit between the ages of 15-22, 31 percent between
10-17 and 11 percent at the age of 10 when they were still fifth
or sixth graders in elementary school.
Aggressive advertisements play the greatest role in
encouraging people to start smoking. They often give misleading
information such as smoking can "boost your self confidence" or
"freshen your breath", while the truth is that with some 400
types of toxins, tobacco can stop you breathing altogether.
A 1996 World Health Organization (WHO) survey found the number
of smokers worldwide to be over 1.1 billion and estimated that
between 1996 and 2000, 62 million people would die from tobacco-
related diseases.
WHO estimated that half of the deaths would occur when the
victims were at their most productive, between the ages of 35 and
69. While the World Bank has reckoned that tobacco consumption
stands at 1.9 kilograms per person a year in the 1990-2000
period.
Other studies in the U.S. have found that tobacco has killed
more people than AIDS, cocaine, fires, murders and traffic
accidents put together.
Why are cigarette so deadly? A cigarette is basically a
chemical cache. When it burns it releases about 400 chemicals,
among them nicotine and carbon monoxide, according to Dr Tjandra
Yoga Aditama.
The smoker inhales all the poisonous chemicals and shares them
with the people around him or her. Few non-smokers are aware that
passively inhaling the smoke is also dangerous to their health.
The most common diseases caused by tobacco are well-known. Dr.
Tjandra says that various studies conducted over the past 40
years in Britain show that 50 percent of people who started
smoking when they were young have died from tobacco-related
diseases. Meanwhile, passive exposure to smoke increases the
possibility of cancer by up to 30 percent.
All studies share the same finding: Smoking increases the
possibility of cancer.
The urgent question is: How can smoking be stopped?
The government has introduced various policies such as banning
smoking in certain places, like schools. But little has been
achieved as is obvious from the rising number of youths who
smoke.
Children of a parent who smokes are more likely to become
smokers also. It is common to see a father or mother puffing on a
cigarette while they are playing with their children. Many do not
seem to aware that the smoke is highly dangerous to children
under five years old.
To counter the aggressive cigarette advertising, there should
be steady campaigns through the mass media on the danger of
smoking.
One way to persuade youth and children not to start smoking
could be to raise tobacco prices.
The government could look into introducing anti-smoking
legislation like in Singapore and Hong Kong, where smoking in
restricted areas is punishable by fines.
Other possibilities are setting a legal minimum age for
smokers, banning the sale and promotion of cigarettes at schools
and places of work, as well as tightening policies on cigarette
adverts.
Without concrete action, tobacco will continue to send more
people to an early grave.