Academics Consider PP Health To Reduce The Number Of Smokers Among Teens

Photo Illustration: Antara

Academics assess that Government Regulation (PP) Number 28 of 2024 concerning the Implementation of Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health (PP Kesehatan) has the opportunity to reduce the number of teenage smokers in Indonesia.

Chairman of the Indonesian Health Policy Room (Rukki) Mouhamad Bigwanto, through a statement in Jakarta, Sunday, August 11, said the opportunity exists and is open, because PP Kesehatan prohibits additional substances in cigarette products, such as peria.

"The very important regulation needed is to prohibit the cigarette industry from making cigarette products with various flavors, so that if the products are no longer available, then automatically there will be no more ads for flavor variant products," he said.

Bigwanto said the addition of a variant of the taste of cigarette products was one of the new strategies of the tobacco industry to attract the attention of new consumers, especially teenagers, by offering a different and more enjoyable experience.

Additional flavors on cigarettes, he said, are intended to cover the bitter taste or strong aroma of tobacco, differentiate their products from competitors, and compete with flavors sold in electronic cigarette products which are estimated to contain up to 16,000 flavor variants.

"The scenario of tobacco products, especially the taste of fruits and candieds, can motivate young people to try tobacco products," he said.

In a poll conducted this year, Bigwanto said, the results showed that the taste of fruits in electronic cigarettes was in great demand by young people, especially for non-smoking people. Meanwhile, the menthol variant is very popular with young people who are also active smokers.

In this regard, the Chairman of the Lentera Anak Foundation, Lisda Sundari, explained the results of another poll, which was attended by 11,841 teenage respondents from 32 provinces, who showed as many as 46 percent of respondents who reported that the most memorable messages from advertising, promotion, and cigarette sponsorship and electronic cigarettes were about the unique new flavor variant.

"But there are more Indonesian teenagers who are still vulnerable and have not received enough information about the dangers of smoking. They have the potential to become the marketing targets of the cigarette industry," he said.

Therefore, Lisda hopes that teenagers will be more careful and pay attention to the increasingly diverse marketing strategy of the cigarette industry.

"Given the psychological condition of teenagers who are still vulnerable, the government is obliged to protect them from the cigarette industry's marketing targets with strong regulations," said Lisda.