Protect Students from Hazards of Smoking

Jawa Pos, page 30

In the 2017 National Health Work Meeting held in early February 2017, President Jokowi urged the public to control the use of cigarettes. In particular, the President asked the public to play a role in preventing students from the hazards of smoking. The President expects society to be responsible for students to be well qualified. That way, Indonesia can achieve the demographic bonus in 2025 – 2030. One way to do that is to control/ curb tobacco among students.

National Commission on Tobacco Control invites all parties to unite to strive to prevent students from consuming cigarettes. The goal is for the sake of better development of Indonesia in the future. Communication and Media Relations of the National Commission on Tobacco Control, Nina Samidi said that people must break the chain of the smoking generation and keep the next generation from falling back on cigarette nicotine addiction that degrades human productivity.

Emil Salim, one of the Advisory Board of the National Commission for Tobacco Control, also invites people to fight nicotine in cigarettes. He said that there is no intention to being against tobacco farmers, but to fight the harmful content in cigarettes. Emil argues that nicotine addiction from cigarettes is feared to reduce the competitiveness of Indonesia’s young generation. Therefore, the public needs to keep students from nicotine addictive substances and thousands of harmful chemicals in cigarettes. Tobacco control is not only the responsibility of society, but also the government.