'No tobacco' campaign to begin in five cities

'No tobacco' campaign to begin in five cities

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education and the
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare are set to launch a massive
campaign on "Youths Under 18 Without Tobacco" in five major
cities next Thursday.

The event, jointly conducted by several non-governmental
organizations, will be simultaneously held in Jakarta, Bandung in
West Java, Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatra and
Yogyakarta.

"The opening is set to be held here (Jakarta), where we'll go
from school to school and explain to students and teachers about
smoking and its consequences," the Ministry of National
Education's director of Physical Quality Development Soeharto
said on Thursday.

"Why 18-year-olds? Because we believe people above that age
are mature enough to make their own choices," he said, adding
that there is growing trend of females starting to smoke at an
early age, such as when in junior high schools.

Most students who smoke could also begin using drugs such as
marijuana, he said.

To alleviate the problem, schools must be designated as
nonsmoking areas, the Ministry of National Education's
Inspectorate General Muljani A. Nurhadi said.

"Actually we have already issued an education ministry decree
on smoking-free school environment No. 4/U/1997 since early 1997
but to no avail due to a lack of support," he said.

"It's quite difficult to implement the decree as many teachers
are also smokers. Therefore, we have changed the approach.

"The awareness has to come from each school and they have to
take the initiative to set a code of conduct on smoking," Muljani
said, adding that so far only the two ministries have imposed no-
smoking areas in their premises.

The campaign would hopefully "save" at least 20 percent of the
40 million secondary-level students nationwide, Muljani said on
the sidelines of an antitobacco campaign attended by former
"Winston Man" Alan Landers alias Allan Stewart Levine, 57, a
spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).

Landers quit smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer 12
years ago. He will join the antitobacco campaign at SMU 70 high
school on Friday, together with representatives from 50 schools
in Jakarta.

Both ministries are also cooperating with the House of
Representatives (DPR) to introduce nonsmoking zones in the DPR
premises.

Former minister of education Fuad Hasan, who served from 1985
to 1993 and was a chain-smoker, recounted how difficult it was to
quit smoking.

"I would advice nonsmokers not light up. But I can't tell
smokers to stop since I myself couldn't. Smoking is addictive. I
found myself waking up in the morning and lighting up instead of
greeting my wife and kid," he said.

Fuad's horse, Nadia, wouldn't like to be pecked if he had just
smoked, he added.

"I believe that every smoker wishes to quit but they don't
have the will to do so. Despite the fact that I started smoking
before 17, I thank God that I'm now 71 years old and healthy,"
Fuad said.

A holistic approach on healthy habits must be introduced by
policy makers, the administration and related NGOs, he said.

"Hundreds of years ago smoking was considered stylish and was
part of socializing. Now there is a resistance toward it.

"So antitobacco campaigns must also be followed by the
campaigns against environmental damage such as air pollution as
well on promoting healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet
and engaging in sport," Fuad said. (edt)