Illustrative photo (Photo: thejakartapost.com) Jakarta (VNA) – Tobacco consumption in Indonesian has been increasing, especially among young people.
Indonesia ranks third on the list of countries with high smoking rate. A quarter of the country’s 65 million youths are smoking, who will face critical health problems caused by tobacco in the next three-four decades.
According to the national 2013 Basic Health Survey, three out of ten smokers are aged between 15 and 30 and most of them light first cigarette before they turn 19.
This is stemmed from the youth’s unawareness of harmful effects from tobacco, imitation and the influence of advertisements and films.
The Government’s poor management and lack of regulations on smoking and tobacco marketing and advertisements are also attributable to the high smoking rate, especially among young people.
Besides, thousands of children are working in tobacco farms.
Production of cigarettes in the country sees strong development. The Ministry of Industry forecasts a tremendous production of 421.1 billion cigarettes in 2016.
As efforts to reduce the smoking situation, the government issued a regulation on the control of materials that contain addictive substances in tobaccos products as well as a decree directing the Health Ministry to have health warnings and information related to harmful influence of tobacco on people’s health.
Besides, civil and social associations organise activities with focus on young people to disseminate tobacco’s harmful effects on society and economy.-VNA
