0 Indonesia's Tobacco Regulation Disappoints Activists

Praise for the passage of a government regulation that scales back aspects of Indonesia’s largely lax tobacco control measures has been muted, with activists noting that the regulation is substantially weakened from its earlier form. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the regulation on Tuesday. Although it formally requires cigarette producers to have begun complying with a raft of restrictions as of Dec. 24 last year, it also stipulates an 18-month transition period before going into full effect. 

Kartono Muhammad, an adviser to the National Commission on Tobacco Control, lauded the government on Wednesday for standing up to the tobacco lobby, but said the regulation had a lot of shortcomings. One of these, he said, was the absence of a ban on selling cigarettes by the stick, a practice that activists have long blamed for enabling minors and poor people to take up and continue smoking. “In the initial draft of the government regulation, such a ban was included, but in its final form it has somehow disappeared,” Kartono said. 

He also took issue with the 18-month adjustment period that the regulation gave to cigarette producers and sellers. The regulation was supposed to go into force in 2010, a year after the passage of the 2009 Health Law, but was repeatedly delayed because of strong lobbying by the tobacco industry and farmers. A draft presented last August stated that it would take full effect from the start of 2014, but the final regulation delays this start to mid-2014. “We want this regulation to be implemented immediately,” Kartono said. 

“It shouldn’t be delayed any further because it’s already three years late as it is.” Priyo Sidipratomo, chairman of the tobacco control commission, echoed the criticism, saying the 18-month period was far too generous. “Everywhere else, the transition period for a regulation is just six months. Eighteen months is too long,” he said. He added it was suspicious that the implementation date would coincide with the end of Yudhoyono’s term in office, saying it appeared that the president wanted to hand the hot-potato issue of implementing the regulation to his successor. 

“There’s a sense that the current administration has little intention of improving the national health sector,” Priyo said. He added he was also unhappy with the fact that the regulation did not restrict more drastically the size of advertising billboards for tobacco products. The regulation caps the size of outdoor billboards at 72 square meters, which is among the biggest sizes available. “To be honest, we at the National Commission on Tobacco Control feel that on the matter of outdoor advertising, we have lost,” Priyo said. 

Despite its shortcomings, the regulation still manages to impose significant restrictions on cigarette producers. The key provision is for a mandatory graphic warning covering 40 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs. The side panels will carry a written warning stating that cigarettes contain more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals and 43 carcinogens, and another one noting that there is no safe level for tobacco use. Producers will also no longer be able to use the words “light/mild,” “ultra light/mild,” “low tar,” “slim,” “special,” “full flavor,” “premium” or any variant of those terms for any of their products. 

Another advertising restriction will bar companies from portraying children, teenagers or pregnant women in their ads. The ads should also not glamorize smoking or encourage people to take up the habit. The regulation will require cigarette ads on television to devote 10 percent of their running time to written warnings and a pictorial warning. Ads on radio would have to devote 10 percent of their duration to verbal warnings, while still-image ads would be required to devote 10 percent of their area for a warning. 

The regulation also stipulates specific prohibitions for cigarette ads in print media. One of them is that these ads may never be published on the front or back cover of a print publication or near ads for food and drink products. Restrictions on outdoor media advertising include a prohibition on tobacco ads being displayed in smoke-free zones or along main roads. The restrictions, however, will not apply to small-scale tobacco companies, defined as those that produce fewer than 24 million cigarettes a year. 

Throughout the process of drawing up the regulation, the government has faced staunch opposition from the cigarette lobby, in particular tobacco farmers who argue that their livelihoods are at stake. Yudhoyono has insisted that the tobacco control regulation is necessary to protect public health, but also vowed to find a middle ground to protect the farmers. More than 237,000 people work in the country’s tobacco industry, producing some 190 billion cigarettes, according to data from the World Health Organization.

source : the jakarta globe