Tobacco Facts.

For the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca), smoke is getting into its eyes, so to speak.

It is gravely concerned over the current trend of Asean countries — home to 125 million smokers — continuing to be cash cows for the world’s largest transnational tobacco companies.

Seatca senior policy advisor Dr Mary Assunta said the industry was seeking more smokers among Asia’s young, especially in Indonesia, the region largest cash cow where 46 per cent of Asean’s smokers reside, and the fourth largest market in the world.

“While many countries in the region are tightening up tobacco control legislation, the industry has launched an all-out attack, especially in Indonesia,” she said in a statement issued by the Bangkok-based organisation today.

She said for Indonesia, the smoking epidemic was a tragedy of colossal proportions as about 200,000 Indonesians die annually from smoke-related diseases and there were now about 60 million smokers, half of whom would die prematurely in the coming years.

“An even bigger tragedy is that the tobacco industry’s plan for Indonesia is to increase smoking and tobacco sales in the coming years. Hence, the industry is fighting tobacco control efforts in Indonesia viciously,” she said.

Dr Assunta said, despite claims by major tobacco companies that they did not advertise to children and supported regulations, over 90 per cent of Indonesian children have seen cigarette advertisements on television, the main medium of advertising used by tobacco companies.

One major tobacco company spent about US$220 million on marketing in Indonesia in 2007, she said, adding that since 78 per cent of Indonesians started smoking before the age of 19, the industry was waging a fight against an advertising ban in the court.

While the National Commission on Child Protection — an Indonesian NGO representing children’s interest — is seeking a judicial review in the Constitution Court to ban tobacco advertising on television, the tobacco industry is fighting this ban, via the Indonesian Government, by providing testimony in court.

Dr Assunta said last month, tobacco company executives launched a vicious attack, using emotional appeal threatening that millions would be unemployed if there was a ban on tobacco advertising on television and radio.

She said, one company even sponsored rock concerts and advertised on television in Indonesia, which was against the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that bars all tobacco companies from advertising, promoting or sponsoring activities in 164 countries.

Source: Bernama

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