60 million Indonesian men are smokers, top in the world

By Elly Burhaini Faizal ( The Jakarta Post )
Publication Date : 12-09-2012

            A recent survey named, "The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS): Indonesia Report 2011" reveals that Indonesian are some of the top smokers in the world with 67.4 percent of men over 15 years smoking and 34.8 percent of total adults were active smokers. Indonesian Health Minister, Nafsiah Mboi was anxious about it because it is 53.9 percent increasing from the previous survey in 1995 by National Social Economic Survey. Beside the men, the number of female smokers also increased 2.7 percent in 2011 from 1.7 percent in 1995. She said that the Indonesians had failed to protect their own people and been defeated by the tobacco industry. Soewarta Kosen, one of the survey team from the Health Ministry said that most smokers were already habituated before the age 18; however, an eight of adult smokers have started before the age of 15. Each adult smokers consumes an average of almost 13 cigarettes each day, and 80 percent of adults are exposed to smoke at home causing the increasing of passive smokers too. Indonesia was one of the only four countries in the region, including Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam to participate in the survey. GATS is the global standard for systematic monitoring of adult tobacco use. It involved respondents aged 15 years and above both males and females. The survey using handheld electronic devices involves a total sample of 8,994 households. WHO Indonesia Representative Khancit Limpakarnjanarat said it was also important to think of teh report's launch as just the beginning of bold efforts to control tobacco use.
             Due to the summary of the article above, i would like to decide that i'm not sure about the article because some points.
             First, the confession of the ministry that Indonesian had failed to protect their own people and been defeated by the tobacco industry. I think that we have to see inside ourselves so far instead of stating that we  had failed. The government should think about the solutions --well it's a must-- to reduce the number of smokers. We knew that some prohibition for the smokers have been made, some no smoking area have been built, some efforts to limit the smokers to smoke have been existed, but those are ineffective. The tobacco factory is still running, the cost of the cigarettes are still reachable for everybody and the bureaucracy is still so easy for the factory to produce and sell the products. To me, these are the main concern the government should've thinking about it. The government can make a more complicated bureaucracy for the factory or increasing the tax of the cigarettes products. If the tax is increased, the cost of the cigarettes will automatically rised too. I think that's one of the best way to reduce the number of smokers, because we can't just make the factory off.
              Second, the survey is apparently involving only four countries in the region. And the survey is becoming somehow the global standard. Personally, i think that this is not accurate enough to decide that it is the global standard. It was only involving 4 countries; moreover, the sample was only 8,994 households. Is it representative enough? No, of course not. I think that the survey needs more correspondents in more countries.
              Well, some of us may think different. I found that some findings may not be fair and the validity of data is not really valid. How about you? Feel free to comment due to my responses :D
Thank you very much!

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