What should the Government do to Stop Epidemic of Smoking among Teenagers in Indonesia?

Abstract

Smoking epidemic has occurred among the Indonesian adolescents, as the nearly six out of ten the youth of ages 13 to 15 years smoke daily. In fact, Indonesia has also been known as "the country of smoking baby", as some family smokers have deliberately introduced the way of smoking to their toddlers. In Indonesia, the most new smokers has been ensnared by the tobacco industry, as they started to smoke when they were minors, which are in incapable condition to make rational decisions. In this context, moral question emerge: Is the government obligated to prevent teenagers from taking-up cigarettes, and what should the government do to stop the smoking epidemic among the adolescents in Indonesia? To answer these questions, this paper contain two main study: First, the author has conduct a survey to present an overview about the ensnarement of new smokers and the dilemma of the tobacco retailers in selling cigarettes to minors in Indonesia. Second, the author presents an overview of the negative impacts of tobacco on children and an obligation analysis of the government to prevent adolescents from taking-up cigarettes. It will then propose some approach to stop smoking epidemic among the adolescents in Indonesia.

Do the Number of Cigarettes Smokes per day Contribute to the Incident of Malignant Cancer?

“…Risky Kusuma Hartono 1,2 *, Sabariah Abd Hamid 2 , Muhammad Hafizurrachman 1 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the world's smokers live in low and middleincome countries and more than half of the world's smoking-addicted population resides in the Asia-Pacific region (WHO, 2015;Ho et al, 2018). In Indonesia, cancer due to smoke causes 74.440 people death with the dominant cases happens in man (95%) (Riskesdas, 2013;Kristina et al, 2015;Tandilittin, 2016). The warning label is no longer acts as a motivation factor to quit smoking immediately due to lack of credibility and inevitability related to the fatalism of the diseases on the label (Mead et al, 2015).…”

Tobacco Control Politics in Indonesia: Regional and Global Perspective

“…It must be remembered that the main role of the media in a democratic state is to provide positive information that will be in demand by the population. For the formation of value orientations and motivations to maintain and strengthen their own health, it is necessary that positive medical information is broadcast regularly, as well as considering the characteristics of the audience (interests, age, gender) (Tandilittin, 2016). The information on the possibilities and methods of maintaining health depends on how competently, professionally, and readily available the effectiveness of the media.…”

“…The formation of a healthy lifestyle should be the focus of social health policy. Comprehensive health promotion and prevention programs should not be reduced to separate measures for organizing medical care, it is necessary that they include measures of hygienic education, to combat alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking, and other risk factors, activation of physical education, measures to create a healthy image life (Tandilittin, 2016).…”

“…More and more countries have introduced various legislative measures to ensure that people do not start smoking, and those who have already become a victim of a bad habit -at last from her refused (Tandilittin, 2016). According to the World Health Organization, today anti-smoking laws work in countries where a total of about 63% of the world's population (4.7 billion people) live.…”

Current Activities in Smokes-Free Zone Policy: a Tobacco Control Care Reviews in Indonesia

“…Indonesia is the only one of the six largest developing countries that has not ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) [1][2][3]. However, the Indonesian government has already recognized that the right to live without air pollution could be impacted by tobacco use [3,4].…”