Press Cigarette Consumption On Children And Teenagers, Ads And Good Sponsors Are Prohibited In Total

Head Of RUKKI, Mouhamad Bigwanto (left) during discussion/ANTARA activities

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Health Policy Room (RUKKI) Mouhamad Bigwanto said, to cut cigarette consumption in adolescents and minors, advertising and promoting cigarette products must be tightened.

"For example, the good thing is that cigarette advertisements and sponsorships are completely prohibited," said Mouhamad Bigwanto in an activity 'Supporting the Implementation of Packaging Standardization Policy on Tobacco Products and Electronic Cigarettes' in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, October 8.

This is intended to make it easier for educational creators to carry out missions to reduce cigarette consumption in school children and minors.

According to him, the design and packaging that are colorful and attracting attention can increase people's interest in trying to smoke, both from young people and people who are quite old.

If the advertisement for cigarette promotion is prohibited in total, he said, the exposure of children to this product is relatively low and educating is easier than now.

A policy to emphasize this must be done by the government to reduce the number of cigarette consumption for beginners, which continues to increase every day.

"Indeed, there are other things that the government must do, one of which is policy. So if we talk about education in public health, such as upstream and downstream. This education is downstream, if the upstream is not resolved automatically downstream, it will also not be finished," he said.

Even so, the way to deal with cigarette consumption in children can be done in various ways. The way that according to him is very effective is to apply plain and uniform packaging rules.

This has proven to be real can reduce the interest in consuming cigarettes in children or novice smokers. Because, he said, cigarettes with plain packaging were considered less attractive to novice smokers.

In countries that have started to apply these rules, one of which is Australia. The country noted a decrease in the number of cigarette consumption for beginners who wanted to try.

The countries that have implemented plain packaging rules, such as in Australia, for active smokers over 14 years of the country recorded a decline in consumption from 15.1 percent in 2010, to 12.8 percent in 2013. They implemented the plain packaging in 2012," he said.