ASEAN COUNTRIES HOME TO 125 MILLION SMOKERS

By D. Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, May 4 (Bernama) -- 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 ent 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
Monday.

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.

-- BERNAMA