Tobacco firms target children

JAKARTA: World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Indonesia Georg Petersen said on Friday that more young people are smoking thanks to the pernicious and pervasive marketing of tobacco.

Speaking at the Ministry of Health in preparation of the World No Tobacco Day on May 31, Petersen said that in Indonesia, 59 percent of males aged 10 years of age or older were daily smokers.

"Smoking here has been given the image of young, trendy, and cool thanks to the fact that all major Indonesian tobacco companies sponsor sporting events," he said.

Petersen said that Indonesians smoked about 199 billion individual cigarettes in 2000 alone and the number was expected to grow by five percent a year.

"Tobacco was a communicated disease because it is communicated through advertising and sponsorship," he said.

Petersen said that WHO had established a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to ensure the 2002 FIFA World Cup was tobacco free.

Meanwhile Ministry of Health urged Indonesians to not smoke on the No Tobacco Day and Television stations to not air cigarette advertisement for one day. -- JP