Child smoking addicts ‘must be stubbed out'

Girang, Indonesia: Anti-tobacco advocates in Indonesia plan to file a class action lawsuit this month highlighting the worrying number of child addicts to force more regulations on a society where one in three people smokes.

The move is a rare attempt to constrain a tobacco industry that looks to the world's fourth most populous country and its growing appetite for cigarettes to replace dwindling sales elsewhere.

The suit against tobacco companies and the Indonesian government argues feeble regulation has left children dangerously exposed to taking up smoking.

"There are kids who have fallen victim to smoking. They are addicted. In the context of people's rights, the society has been disadvantaged by the tobacco industry," head of the National Commission for Child Protection, Arist Merdeka Sirait, said.

Tolerated habit

Indonesia is a haven for both smokers and tobacco companies, with the world's fifth largest population of smokers. It is a widely tolerated habit and one which even in this relatively poor archipelago most can afford to feed.

And smoking is getting more popular as the economy grows. In 1995, one in four Indonesians smoked. Fifteen years later it had risen to one in three.

That in turn has tempted international tobacco firms to join the hugely profitable home-grown ones such as Gudang Garam, P T Djarum and Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, which is now part of Philip Morris International.

The government even gives tax incentives for the manufacture of hand-rolled cigarettes because it provides a major source of employment in east Java.

A spokesman for the Federation of Indonesian Cigarette Manufacturers said he had heard of the suit but declined to comment because it was not aimed at the federation.

"If a child is smoking, is that the problem of the advertisement or the parents?" spokesman Hasan Aoni said.

The vast majority of Indonesian smokers puff cigarettes laced with cloves, called kretek, a word based on the crackling sound made by the burning, heavily scented spice.

Advertising to blame

So widespread is the habit that tobacco products are the number two item in household expenditure after rice, according to the statistics bureau.

Health worker Husein says the fault lies in advertising. Billboards located in roads near the village feature cigarette advertisements and local entertainment events are also often sponsored by tobacco firms.