Indonesian Smoking Cessation Efforts Fall Short: Experts

Indonesian Smoking Cessation Efforts Fall Short: Experts

An estimated 300,000 Indonesians die each year from smoking-related causes, but efforts to get smokers to kick the habit are having little impact, officials and activists say.

EkowatiRahajeng, the Health Ministry’s director of noncommunicable diseases, said on Tuesday that the high death toll could be attributed to Indonesia’s high smoking prevalence: 34.7 percent in 2010, up from 33.4 percent in 2007.

Alarmingly, the number of child smokers has surged, with one in five children at the junior high school level smoking, Ekowati said.

MenaldiRasmin, a pulmonologist at Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta, said none of the options available to help smokers quit was effective.

“Electronic cigarettes, nicotine gum, nicotine patches and hookahs are all ineffective in helping break the addiction,” he told a seminar at the University of Indonesia on Wednesday.

Nicotine replacement alternatives like gum, patches and electronic cigarettes don’t give smokers the same dopamine high they would get from puffing on an actual cigarette, he said.

“That’s why to really quit, it takes strong commitment,” said Menaldi, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Council of Doctors (KKI).

AbdillahHasan, a researcher at the University of Indonesia’s Demographic Institute, says the country’s cigarette addiction threatens its demographic potential.

The decade from 2020 to 2030 has been identified as the period when the productive population is expected to outnumber the unproductive group, which Indonesia could take advantage of to power its economic growth.

“But the demographic bonus will be useless if no efforts are made to contain the impact of cigarettes,” Abdillah said recently.

A study by his institute in 2009 showed that 57 percent of the poorest households in the country spent part of their income on cigarettes. TulusAbadi, manager of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), argues that such people should be cut off from government aid under the social security program.

Speaking at the UI seminar on Wednesday, he pointed out that cigarettes were subject to an excise tax, which thus classified them as a luxury good.

“They choose to smoke, so why should the state pay for the consequences? In other countries, smokers pay high insurance premiums and are sometimes even denied coverage.”

Sumber:http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesian-smoking-cessation-efforts-fall-short-experts/521222

Comment:

It was terrible to see Indonesia 300.000 people who die each year from smoking. Even the percentage of smoke always rises every year. Even more alarming number of children of smokers continues to rise, one in five children smoked junior level.

There is no option to help smokers quit effective. Electronic cigarette, nicotine gum, nicotine patches and hookahs all ineffective in helping solve the addiction. Alternatives such as nicotine replacement permenkaret, patches and electronic cigarettes do not give smokers the same high dopamine they will get from an actual cigarette. That's why to a complete stop, it takes a very strong commitment.

A researcher from the University of Indonesia said, "addicted to cigarettes in the country's demographic potential threat." That is when the productive population exceeds the number of groups are not productive, then Indonesia could take advantage of its growth. But the demographic bonus will be in vain if the impact of smoking is still there.

A study by the institute in 2009 showed that 57 percent of the poorest households in this country spend most of their income on cigarettes. While smoking is one of the products subject to excise tax, which is thus classified as a luxury good.

NAMA            : SUCI SYARASWATI

KELAS           : 1EA13

NPM               : 18211056

TUGAS           : BAHASA INGGRIS