Older Smokers Get Younger

Indonesia is a country that cannot be separated from the image of cigarettes. It can not be denied that Indonesia is one of the biggest tobacco producers in the world.

Cigarette butt becomes the trash that we encounter most often anywhere. The inland smokers were dominated by adolescent age groups and from year to year the age of active smokers is getting younger.

It seems that the writings and pictures warning of the dangers of smoking on billboards and cigarette packs themselves are not a scourge for school children to smoke.

Especially among students, more and more of them are smoking, whereas we are adults and active smokers can’t do much.

This is an irony in Indonesian society. There are still many active smokers who can’t be polite smokers and often break the rules.

This article will discuss the age phenomenon of active smokers who are getting younger from year to year. Various smoking ban regulations have been applied. However, a series of rules seems does not affect the urge to smoke in children.

The phenomenon of the age of active smokers getting younger

Studies conducted by the School of Strategic Studies and the Global Center for National Assurance Studies University of Indonesia said that 33.03 percent of youths aged 18-24 years are still active smokers, followed by age 39 years as much as 41.75 percent. Meanwhile the most active smokers are aged 25-38 with a percentage of 44.75 percent.

This research was conducted on 1-31 May 2018 of 1,000 respondents, both passive or active smokers.

Data owned by the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control The Indonesian Ministry of Health also mentioned an increase in the prevalence of young smokers from year to year. By 20.30 percent in 2010 to 23.10 percent in 2016.

Actually, warnings about the dangers of smoking have been regulated in the Government’s Law Number 109 of 2012 concerning Safeguarding Materials Containing Addictive Substances in the Form of Tobacco Products for Health, which are then issued in the Minister of Health Regulation No. 28/2013 concerning the Inclusion of Health Warnings and Health Information on the Packaging Tobacco Products.

Warning pictures that have been listed on cigarette packs today aims to make smokers aware of the dangers of smoking. However, pictures it does not have any impact on smokers. Even now, Indonesia is faced with the problem of increasing the number of smokers as teenager.

Based on Basic Health Research Data (Riskesdas), tobacco prevalence consumption for people in the country above 15 years old is very high, especially in men. In 1995, as many as 27 percent of the population aged over 15 years consume tobacco. This figure increased to 36.3 percent in 2013.

The high number of young smokers in Indonesia is considered to be incompatible The 2019 National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) targets decreased prevalence of smokers to 5.2 percent.

According to one research team by Renny Nurhasana, the prevalence rate of young smokers should have gone down in 2019 to 5.4 percent. It was 7.2 percent in the year before, then it increased to 8.8 percent in 2018.

The increase in the number of young smokers was caused by many factors, including tax rules that have not been effective. There are still public spaces that allow smokers and cigarette advertisements everywhere which are still commonly found.

Meanwhile, different things happen to the proportion of smokers who have just smoked tobacco at the age of more than 20 years shows a declining trend. The amount is decreasing
to 24.3 percent in 2013 from the original 35.9 percent in 1995. In fact, at that age someone can decide to smoke or not.

Besides threatening the survival of the younger generation, smoking is also one of the commodities contributing to the second largest poverty line after rice.

Based on Monthly Report on Indonesian Socio Economic Data, as of September 2017, rice contributed against the greatest poverty of 18.8 percent in urban areas and 24.52 percent in rural.

The second factor contributing to poverty is clove cigarettes, which account for 9.98 percent of poverty in urban areas and 10.7 percent in rural areas.

Regulation of rising prices and bans on cigarette advertising are still unable to stop smoking behavior of children and adolescents in Indonesia if not accompanied by education society about the dangers of smoking.

Another issue that is no less important is the government is still looking for sources of state revenue from cigarette excise taxation.

This phenomenon is the responsibility of all of us as Indonesian society and become a difficult homework for the current government. Hopefully in the future we can solve this problem.