The Government Has Restricted Conventional Cigarette Advertising, But Indonesian Smokers Are Increasing, How Can You?

Ilustrasi-Rokok (Freepik)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Health (Wamenkes) Dante Saksono Harbuwono revealed that there was an increase in the number of smokers in Indonesia today.

This is based on the results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) released by the World Health Organization.

This survey was conducted in 2021 involving 9,156 respondents. As a result, the number of adult smokers in Indonesia in 2021 is 69.1 million people. In fact, the number of smokers in 2011 was still as much as 60.3 million.

"In GATS, Indonesia in the last 10 years there has been a decrease in smoking prevalence which is only 1.6 percent. However, there has been an increase in the number of adult smokers by 8.8 percent from 60.3 million to 69.1 million people (over 10 years). ," said Dante on the Ministry of Health's Youtube channel, quoted on Thursday, June 2.

Dante continued, the prevalence of passive smoking in 2021 was recorded to be quite high, namely 120 million people. This is related to the high percentage of exposure to cigarette smoke in several public places such as in restaurants, households, government buildings, workplaces, public transportation, and even in health care facilities.

In fact, continued Dante, there are 63.4 percent of adult smokers who have a desire to quit smoking. However, only 43.58 percent made efforts to quit smoking.

"So, the intention is already there, but the efforts have not yet been fully implemented," said Dante.

Dante mentioned one of the factors that exacerbated the increase in the number of smokers in Indonesia. Although the government has made efforts to reduce the number of cigarette advertisements on conventional platforms, there has been a significant increase in cigarette advertisements on the internet.

Based on the results of the GATS survey, there has been a significant decrease in paying attention to cigarette advertising, promotion or sponsorship. Unfortunately, there has been an increase in exposure to cigarette advertisements on the internet which has increased more than 10 times in the last 10 years, from 1.9 percent in 2011 to 21.4 percent in 2021.

"So this must get our attention to carry out higher education on social media through the internet, which is higher than the number of smoking advertisements on the internet which has increased 10 times," said Dante.

Therefore, Dante directs all relevant parties to follow up on the survey by implementing policies and programs that can reduce exposure to tobacco advertisements from print, electronic, and social media.

"This is a task that seems easy, but it is very difficult to do. But we can do it together after we see the exposure to the survey from GATS 2021," said Dante.

In addition, Dante also asked for an increase in smoking cessation services, involving influencers to educate about smoking cessation, and overseeing the increase in the number of no-smoking area regulations.