INDONESIAN YOUTH AND CIGARETTE SMOKING

Background: The increasing number of children and young adults exposed to tobacco usage in the world is alarming. Indonesia is the third biggest tobacco consumer in the world after China and India. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, it reduce quality of life and life expectancy. Smoking causes illnesses, big economic lost and premature death. Tobacco use was the leading cause of preventable death. Smokers began at early age; they became the target of massive tobacco campaigns. Youth were vulnerable to tobacco advertising, once they began to smoke, it was difficult to quit. The Objectives of this paper is to identify tobacco usage among the Indonesian youth, to explore health problems, regulations related to tobacco consumption and efforts to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Methods: Method used is by reviewing studies and campaign information provided by researchers and practitioners in tobacco control programs. Result: Data shows that among people aged 10 to 24 years in Indonesia the current smokers were 23.7% daily smokers, 5.5% occasional smokers while the average cigarettes consumed daily were 12.2. Among lndonesian aged 13-15 years, there were 41% boys and 3.5% girls that were current cigarette smoking and 10.3% boys and 3,1% girls that had current tobacco other than cigarette. It is important that this preventable epidemic becomes a top public health issue in all countries. A complete ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is a powerful tool to protect the world's youth and Indonesia should ratify tobacco ban. Key words: Indonesia, tobacco, youth, advertisement