Nipping Growth of New Smokers

· 3 minutes read

First-time smokers in Indonesia are becoming younger and younger, which will be a burden in our effort to improve the competitiveness of our human resources.

The 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) showed that 7.2 percent of children aged 10-18 years smoked; the figure increased to 9.1 percent in the 2018 Riskesdas.

The data corresponds with that of Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta. A decade ago, the average age of lung cancer patients at the hospital was 60 years. Today, many patients are 30-40 years old.

Much empirical evidence exists on how smoking tobacco harms the health. Smoking is a major risk factor for five noncommunicable diseases: heart diseases, strokes, diabetes, cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Apart from the health risks to active smokers, smokers also harm others who breathe cigarette smoke (passive smokers). The average birth weight for babies of women who smoke actively is 2.263 kilograms, the average birth weight for babies of women who are passive smokers is 2.663 kg and the average birth weight for babies of women who are non-smokers and have no smokers in the family is 3.295 kilograms.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the tobacco epidemic as the world’s largest public health problem, with more than 8 million deaths worldwide. Of these, 7 million deaths are due to active smoking and another 1.2 million deaths are due to passive smoking.

With the growing number of first-time smokers in Indonesia, the risk of disease and death at a young age is increasing. As a result, the health costs borne by families and the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) will also increase. Families may lose their income due to the death of the breadwinner, and this will affect economic growth.

This is contrary to our government’s plan to improve our human resource competitiveness to face the increasingly harsh global competition.

Proposals exist to sharply increase cigarette tax to prevent children and teenagers from buying them. However, this must be accompanied by efforts to prevent the mushrooming of the illegal sale of cigarettes at slashed prices.

The government is trapped in a dilemma of earning tax revenue, creating jobs and increased health costs in connection with tobacco. The Health Ministry’s research and development department shows that cigarette smoking in 2013 incurred nationwide health costs that were 3.7 times the revenue gained from cigarette taxes.

We urge the government to make concerted efforts to prevent the mushrooming of first-time smokers. Other than increasing the cigarette tax, the government must also require cigarette companies to explain the dangers of smoking on cigarette packaging and intensify its efforts to raise awareness on the adverse effects of smoking.

Editor:

BPJS kompascetak smokers the 2013 basic health research the healthcare and social security agency