Indonesia Sees Rising Number of Smokers among Female Teenagers
21 December 2015 18:44 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Social Economic Survey (Susenas) and the Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) agencies revealed that the level of cigarette consumption by female teenagers have increased ten-fold over the last two decades. Among male teenagers, the amount of tobacco consumed increased by more than two times.
In 1995, Susenas said, as many as 0.3 percent of teenage girls aged 15 to 19 began smoking daily. In 2013, Riskesdas released a data revealing that 3.1 percent of Indonesia's teenage girls are smokers. In the same period, the prevalence of smoking among teenage boys increased from 14 percent to 37 percent.
This data illustrates how teenagers are an attractive market for the tobacco and cigarette industry.
Abdillah Hasan, deputy chairman of Universitas Indonesia's demography department, said that Indonesian teenagers need to be protected from the dangers of smoking. This, he said, can be done by increasing cigarette prices, warning images, the ban on cigarette commercial and sponsorship, and adding more smoking-free areas in public places.
According to Dina Kania from the World Health Organization (WHO) Indonesia, Indonesia's weakness in implementing smoking-related regulations has made its people a target of capitalism both from the country and overseas.
"We do not have the legal umbrella to ban smoking," Dina said, stressing that Indonesia does not have the power to fight against the cigarette industry's interventions.
MAYA AYU PUSPITASARI