Sutiyoso plans for 'smoke-free' Jakarta

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

Jakarta could be a "smoke-free city" soon as the Sutiyoso administration is planning to ban all cigarette smoking in public places.

"We have to protect those who are not smoking from the danger of cigarette smoke," Governor Sutiyoso said on Friday after a signing ceremony to observe the National Children's Day on July 23, at Ancol Dreamland Park in North Jakarta.

At the event, President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar signed a pledge to free schools nationwide from cigarettes.

Sutiyoso said the planned smoking prohibition in the city, in the form of a city bylaw, was a follow-up to the national campaign.

Smoke-free zones in the city would include public buses, offices, air-conditioned buildings such as shopping malls; and elevators, he said.

"Of course, the bylaw would impose sanctions against offenders," he said.

The Jakarta administration is among the few institutions in the country that has officially declared its offices smoke-free.

In his gubernatorial decree dated Feb. 9, Sutiyoso requires all administration officials, workers and guests to refrain from smoking on administration premises and prohibits the marketing of cigarettes to staff.

However, many of his officials continue to ignore the decree as it has no teeth to impose sanctions.

Studies show that Jakarta is a city of smokers, with many of them known to be children. A recent survey made by the Pelita Ilmu Foundation estimates that about three million teenagers in the city are regular smokers with 20 percent of them still at junior high school.

So far, little has been done by the government to discourage people from smoking despite the existence of Government Regulation No. 81/1999 on the protection of public health, which requires smoke-free zones in public places, buildings and aboard public transportation.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that about 57,000 people in the country are known to die annually from tobacco- related illnesses, including heart disease, respiratory diseases, mouth cancer, throat cancer and strokes.

The data estimates at least 500,000 people in the country are suffering from such illnesses.

Smoking is a worldwide concern, with the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that about five million people die of smoking-related diseases every year.