Toddlers on tobacco: the tragedy of the big picture
Indonesia is the world's third-largest tobacco consumer. In a nation of 235 million people, 63 per cent of men light up and about one-third of the population smokes.
The country's Central Statistics Agency said about a quarter of children aged between three and 15 have tried smoking, with 3.2 per cent of them active smokers.
The number of smokers between five to nine-year-olds increased from 0.4 per cent in 2001 to 2.8 per cent in 2004, the agency reported.
There are few government controls, no restrictions on advertising or where people can take a puff.
"Indonesia is unfortunately regarded as a basket case in international tobacco control," said Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, who campaigned for Clarkson to drop tobacco sponsorship from her concert last month.
"It's regarded as a smoker's paradise. Several of the transnational tobacco companies - British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris - have recently opened up big financial ventures in Indonesia."
In March, there was another video - this time of four-year-old Sandy - who swore and blew smoke rings from a clove cigarette while answering questions about sex off-camera, sparking outrage among child advocates in Indonesia.
His parents reportedly said he had been smoking up to a pack a day since he was two.
Sandy was removed from his family and spent a month in rehab at a hospital before being sent to an Islamic boarding school, Indonesian authorities said.
But many other children continue to pick up the habit, and there are no age restrictions for the sale of cigarettes.
Packs are cheap by regional standards and cost about $US1 each, while individual sticks are sold for just a few cents each.
2008 UN figures showed that on average, Indonesians took home $US2150 a year in wages.
A tobacco revenue study from the same year reported that smokers spent at least 10 per cent of their household income on cigarettes - three times more than on education and books.
Advertising is ubiquitous and tobacco companies sponsor everything from scholarships to sporting events, while the government gets about 6 per cent of its revenue from cigarette taxes.
Meanwhile, smoking-related illnesses claim the lives of more than 200,000 Indonesians every year.
"In a culture where tobacco control is not taken seriously, it's highly likely that people will think that children smoking an amusing sight rather than a tragic sight," Professor Chapman said.
"It might be that the cigarettes are even provided by the children to their parents because it's something funny."
The government has acknowledged the spread of youth smokers, saying it would try to limit the growth by dropping the production of cigarettes from 245 billion in 2009 to 240 billion this year.
But Indonesia is one of a handful of nations that have not signed up to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - alongside lawless Somalia and tobacco-growing nations like Malawi and Zimbabwe.
A 2009 health law recognises smoking is addictive, but recent attempts to push through a tobacco control bill has been stalled by opposition from the tobacco industry.
Professor Chapman is optimistic that despite the odds, Indonesia would one day learn from its neighbour Thailand and reign in its smoking habit.
"Thailand, which is just a short way away from Indonesia, has one of the world's largest warnings on cigarette packs with very, very gory photographs," he said.
"They don't allow tobacco products to be displayed in shops and there's no advertising in Thailand at all for tobacco products.
"The government has shown what a developing country can do."
No comments:
Post a Comment