Pro-tobacco bill up, as 200,000 Indonesians die from smoking every year

The Indonesian parliament is deliberating a bill that will obstruct tobacco control efforts in Indonesia, 5 years after a video showing a toddler from Indonesia smoking went viral, and while 200,000 residents die from smoking-related diseases every year. The House’s health committee tried to set up regulations for the sale of tobacco in 2010, but neither the parliament nor the government has discussed the bill to this day. However, the bill submitted by the House’s industrial committe just last February is up for deliberation. Its provisions are dominated by legal arrangements regarding tobacco production and the tobacco industry; health issues are not the core of the bill. Indonesia imports more tobacco than it exports to meet local demands for cigarettes. It is the only country in the Asia Pacific that has yet to ratify the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Read the full story on Rappler Indonesia.