Refuting myths about tobacco and smoking

Refuting myths about tobacco and smoking

Is it true tobacco controls will cost thousands of jobs? Find out
the answer to this and other questions by examining some of the
myths and facts surrounding tobacco and smoking:
* Myth: Most Indonesians smoke.
Fact: The majority of Indonesian adults do not smoke.

Most Indonesian do not smoke. About 31.8 percent of Indonesian
adults were smokers in 2001, and the vast majority of smokers are
men.

There is an alarming increase in the proportion of children
trying tobacco products. Children are influenced by advertising
and films that associate smoking with happiness and success, and
they can easily buy cigarettes. This increase may be attributable
in part to intensive marketing and advertising campaigns by the
tobacco industry, particularly after TV advertising was permitted
in 1990, and the marketing of single sticks of cigarettes for as
low as Rp 300.

Advertising and promotion of tobacco products, and tobacco
industry sponsorship of sports and cultural events, encourages
children and youth to experiment with tobacco by creating an
environment where tobacco use is normal, familiar and acceptable.
* Myth: Tobacco controls will lead to thousands of job losses.
Fact: The proportion of formal workers who rely on tobacco for
their jobs is a small part of the labor force.

The number of Indonesian farmers involved in growing tobacco
full time is equivalent to about 1 percent of the total
agricultural labor force, and less than 1 percent of arable land
is devoted to tobacco farming.

In 2000, workers in the tobacco industry comprised about 5.6
percent of the total number of people employed in the
manufacturing sector, and less than 1 percent of the workers in
the industry sector.

Declines in tobacco consumption in industrialized countries
demonstrated that change in demand for tobacco is gradual and the
effect on tobacco farming is not immediate.

In the U.S., tobacco farmers were not put out of work by
decreasing smoking rates, but rather the children of tobacco
farmers were less likely to go into tobacco farming than were
their parents.

In Indonesia, such a decline generally follows overall
declines in the proportion of people working in the agricultural
sector compared with increased employment in the industrial and
services sectors.

The reality, however, is that the number of smokers is
increasing. Assuming no change in prevalence, the World Health
Organization predicts the number of smokers globally will
increase from 1.1 billion (1999) to 1.8 billion by the year 2025.
Thus, the immediate economic need is to reduce the increase in
tobacco use and people's dependence on an addictive substance.
Resources spent on tobacco products could be switched to other
commodities that do not result in long-term health damage.
* Myth: Research about the health risks of tobacco is
inconclusive.
Fact: More than 70,000 scientific articles have conclusively
demonstrated that tobacco use and exposure to passive
(environmental) tobacco smoke is harmful to the health.

About one-half of long-term smokers die of their habit during
middle age, cutting 20 to 25 years off a healthy life. More than
70,000 scientific articles have conclusively demonstrated that
tobacco use causes cancers of the mouth and lung, in addition to
many other types of cancers, heart disease, hypertension and
other respiratory diseases.

Independently funded research has demonstrated that clove
cigarettes contain 60 percent to 70 percent tobacco, and
therefore possess all of the health risks of other tobacco
products.

In evaluating the quality of the research findings, it is very
important to investigate the source of its funding. The tobacco
industry has commissioned it own research that must be viewed in
light of the industry's conflict of interest in promoting tobacco
product sales. Contrary to independently funded research, tobacco
industry-sponsored studies have found that clove cigarettes are
beneficial to the health.

The research community, however, has dismissed these findings
because of the tobacco industry's conflict of interest in
promoting their own products and generating additional sales.
U.S. researchers have reported that tobacco-sponsored research
has been edited to omit findings that conflict with the goal of
promoting tobacco use, such as excluding the term "cancer".
* Myth: Prohibiting smoking in public violates smokers' rights.
Fact: Smoking in public places violates the rights of non-smokers
to clean air and imposes physical and financial costs on others.

An individual's decision to smoke affects other people. The
health risks of passive smoking are high. Maternal smoking OR
maternal exposure to passive smoke during pregnancy is associated
with an increased risk of low birth weight, spontaneous abortion,
stillbirths and complications during labor.

Nonsmokers married to smokers have a 25 percent to 35 percent
increased risk of lung cancer, and those exposed to heavy smokers
for the longest time had the highest risks. Nearly all Indonesian
smokers (91.8 percent) smoke at home, and there are no clean air
laws for most public places. Particularly among children, the
effect of passive smoke can cause lasting health damage via
increased incidence of pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, ear
infections and reduced lung capacity.
* Myth: Smokers themselves make their own informed decisions
about how to spend their money, with an understanding of the
risks of tobacco use.
Fact: Most people start smoking when they are children or
adolescents.

The average age of smoking initiation among smokers in
Indonesia is 18.4 years. Most smokers start their habit early in
life, and children and teenagers do not have the capacity to
evaluate the health risks of smoking or the addictiveness of
nicotine.

In fact, a Global Youth Survey in Jakarta in 2000 found that
43.9 percent of students between the ages of 11 and 13 had smoked
cigarettes, and about 20 percent smoked regularly. Despite the
fact that smokers who quit can reduce their health risks, very
few succeed because they do not understand the highly addictive
nature of nicotine. Among students aged 11 to 13 who smoked
regularly, 83 percent wanted to stop smoking but could not.

-- Anhari Achadi and Soewarta Kosen