Smoking Hits Poor Families Hardest
More money is spent on cigarettes than on rice in low-income families that include a smoker, a former health minister said on Tuesday.
“A smoker in the family can mean that up to 17 days of the family income is spent on cigarettes,” Farid Anfasa Moeloek, who now heads the National Commission on Tobacco Control, said during a health discussion on smoking.
“This means that only 13 days of their income is left for food and other household necessities,” Farid said. “This increases the likelihood of children suffering learning difficulties and other problems due to malnutrition.”
“Given that 70 percent of the country’s smokers come from low-income families, Indonesia faces losing a generation of children,” Farid said, adding that the data came from research conducted in 2007 by the University of Indonesia’s Demographic Institute.
This, he said, made it important that the government finalize the law on tobacco control, which has been languishing in the House of Representatives since 2004. He said that by adopting the law, Indonesia could better protect its citizens, especially the poor and the young.
“The law addresses the need for smoke-free zones, a ban on selling cigarettes to under-aged children and outlawing cigarette advertising, as well as raising taxes on cigarettes,” Farid said. “If we can adopt this law, income from higher cigarette taxes can be allocated to help people suffering from tobacco-related ailments.”
Indonesia currently charges a 37 percent tax on tobacco and earns about Rp 42 trillion ($3.5 billion) annually from the tax.
“Smoking makes the poor become poorer,” Farid said.
A 2007 UN report that tracks countries’ progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals said that nationally, the number of malnourished children under the age of 5 remained relatively high despite reductions in the last two decades.
“Smoking also increases the risk of miscarriage, as well as of delivering a low-weight or premature baby,” Farid said.
Indonesia remains one of only four countries yet to ratify the 2004 World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which provides for tobacco control measures related to the production, sale, distribution, advertisement and taxation of tobacco. “I don’t know why we haven’t ratified this convention,” Farid said, adding that the mortality rate for tobacco-related ailments in Indonesia stood at 22 percent, including 32,400 infant deaths in 2006 linked to smoking, according to Unicef data.
“Protecting our young generation is important as they have become the main targets of cigarette advertising,” he said.
According to a global youth tobacco survey conducted by the World Health Organization in 2006, 14.4 percent of Indonesian students between the ages of 13 and 15 were smokers, while separate research in 2007 found that 41.5 percent of student smokers said they were influenced by cigarette ads.
Research by the National Commission on Child Protection showed cigarette companies sponsored 1,350 youth-oriented events in the first 10 months of 2007.
© Copyright: Thejakartaglobe
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It sounds like the author equates smoking among poorer families
equate to maltrition of children.
I think the author is going a little overboard with his
comparisons.
Does the author insinuate that government should outlaw poorer
families from buying tobacco products??
If they would stop raising the tobacco taxes to pay for legislators pet projects, these people would not be so poor!
As in all cases against Tobacco, the proof of harm is all circumstantial and no positive proof is ever presented.. Not one person has been proven to have died due to SHS and Smoking is only one of dozens of possible causes. It is impossible for Epidemiology to pinpoint any single cause and that is the specific reason it is used. Studies find the predetermined cause or funding will be withdrawn. Without funding from the Government and the Pharmaceuticals no studies would be done and this is the reason fraud can be found in at least 29% of all studies.
The World Health Organization says air pollution prematurely kills two million people a year, with more than half the deaths in developing countries.
http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/medical_effects/WHO2006reuters.html
Reducing pollution particles too small to be filtered in the nose and throat and settle in the lungs could save 300,000 lives a year..
Reducing levels of extremely small particles — caused primarily by the burning of fossil and other types of fuel — could cut the deaths from air pollution by about 15 percent, said Maria Neira, the WHO director for public health and the environment.
It also could cut the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer, she said.
Particulate matter pollution is considered the biggest health risk. But the WHO Air Quality Guidelines also recommended lowering the daily allowed limits for ozone.
Most third world countries cook over wood which is second only to Diesel fumes in causing deaths. SHS has never been proven to have caused death.
Anti smoking hits the pockets of non profits. the RWJF and J&J who funds anti smoking and gets filthy rich from marketing thier own nicotine.
Just follow the money from the J&J”s Robert Wood Johnson foundation into the pockets of ACS, ALA & AHA to lobby for smoking bans.
Did the author get a grant from the RWJF aka J&J who funds anti smoking and profits from its own nicotine? Brilliant marketing scam
Typical twisting of reality by an Antismoker: “A smoker in the family can mean that up to 17 days of the family income is spent on cigarettes”
Note the word “can.” And note how the example is used to indicate that this sort of thing is common. My guess is that the speaker took the incomes of the absolute poorest families, then made the assumption that the “smoker” in question was smoking 20 to 60 cigarettes a day despite their poverty. The reality may be that out of all the hundreds of millions of people in Indonesia this particular “example” may not even exist… and it sure as heck isn’t likely to be as common as hinted at here.
Whenever you see a new antismoking study or story, ALWAYS look for the weasel words and tricks: they’re almost always in there someplace. Also: note how right after shedding crocodile tears about money being diverted from food to cigarettes the minister then goes on to praise the idea of raising cigarette taxes even higher so the government can steal even more money from those poor people.
Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains”
“Smoking makes the poor become poorer”.
Smoking does not make the poor become poorer, raising the taxes do!
The nannies need to stop with the whole control thing of others and control themselves for once and, pardon the pun, butt out. But then they might be out of a job and have to live normal lives. If the WHO really wanted to protect the children they would take psychology courses and find out that forbidden fruits become even more enticing to youth! Duh!