You start playing with fire when you smoke

You start playing with fire when you smoke

Alexandria Robinson, Contributor, Jakarta

It is an everyday sight around Jakarta, teenagers nongkrong
(hanging out) on a street corner, puffing away on cigarettes.

Of course, smoking is not limited to teens in Jakarta. The
World Health Organization estimates that 50,000 adolescents in
Asia smoke daily.

Most of us are familiar with the risks associated with
smoking; respiratory problems, cancer and heart disease being
just a few. So why do so many Indonesian teenagers smoke?

Chris, 17, started smoking two years ago, and admitted it had
a lot to do with wanting to be part of the in-crowd.

"I was bored over the summer and I went to the mall one day.
My friends were smoking so I started as well."

Unfortunately for teenagers, people who start smoking when
they are younger are more likely to become addicted to nicotine,
the main substance in cigarettes. Once addicted it is extremely
difficult to give up smoking.

For teenagers who want to feed their addiction, there is no
shortage of cigarettes in Indonesia. And although there is an age
limit for buying cigarettes in major supermarkets, people of all
ages can purchase cigarettes from warung (sidewalk stalls).

According to a 1994 study conducted by the World Health
Organization, Indonesia is the seventh largest producer of
unmanufactured tobacco, with 137,000 tonnes produced each year.
This contributes to a culture of acceptance of cigarettes in
Indonesian society, even among people who recognize the health
dangers.

While it is more common in modern Indonesian culture for males
to smoke than females, with women smokers often seen as
"rebellious", "easy" and rejecting the feminine norms, this is
changing, particularly in large cities like Jakarta.

Now, in the capital, young women who smoke are often
considered modern and chic, whereas males continue to use
cigarettes to cultivate an image of masculinity and as part of
their social interactions.

Within Indonesian society, smoking is more accepted than
drinking alcohol or taking drugs, and does not carry the same
social stigmas.

"Smoking is less hazardous to your health than taking drugs,"
Chris says.

In the world of teenagers, with its peer pressure and desire
to conform and fit in, those who smoke are often considered hip
and cool. Chris says smoking lends itself to a "glamorous sort of
lifestyle", which is the kind of message tobacco companies work
so hard to deliver.

One only has to look at a billboard advertising Marlboro as
the cigarette of choice for rugged cowboys to see the sort of
images being presented to the Indonesian public.

Philip Morris, the producer of Marlboro cigarettes and the
world's largest tobacco company, uses internationally recognized
American icons such as the Harley Davidson and the famous
Marlboro Man cowboy in its advertising. These icons promote their
product as a symbol of freedom, democracy and affluence, and it
is easy to get impressionable people hooked.

That tobacco companies sponsor events that are primarily aimed
at a teenage audience, such as dances and concerts, also suggests
that they are subtly encouraging Indonesian teens to purchase
their cigarette brands. The tobacco companies, of course, deny
such accusations.

In the past, the Ministry of Education has conducted a number
of antismoking campaigns throughout Indonesia. In March 2002 a
campaign was begun to reduce the number of teenage smokers. It
consisted of antismoking teams handing out information booklets
and calendars promoting a healthy lifestyle.

But the effectiveness of these campaigns can be questioned,
given that all of the teenagers interviewed for this story were
unaware of any such campaigns in Indonesia.

However, they had their own suggestions about how to reduce
the number of teenage smokers. These included increasing the
price of cigarettes, enforcing the law that only those over the
age of 18 can purchase cigarettes and increasing awareness about
the risks of smoking.

The best solution to the problem of teen smokers is
prevention. If adolescents are encouraged not to take up smoking,
they will not have to travel the difficult and often futile path
of trying to give up their addiction.

But what is the best way to go about "educating teens"?

The Ministry of Education might benefit from modeling an
antismoking campaign on one introduced in Florida, the U.S., in
2000.

The campaign, called The Truth, was planned by teenagers for
teenagers, and resulted in 80,000 fewer smokers. The secret
behind the success of the campaign was that it was nonjudgmental
toward adolescents, portraying the tobacco companies as the "bad
guys".

Though many steps need to be taken before the number of
Indonesian teenage smokers can be reduced, the best place to
start is to enlighten teens about the huge risk they are taking
every time they light up a cigarette.