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KARAWANG GIRANG, Indonesia - Anti-tobacco advocates in Indonesiaplan to file a class action lawsuit this month using cases of childaddicts in the hope of forcing tougher regulations on a societywhere one in three people smokes. It is a rare attempt of its kind to constrain a tobacco industrywhich looks to the world's fourth most populous country and itsgrowing appetite for cigarettes to replace dwindling saleselsewhere. The suit against tobacco companies and the Indonesian governmentargues that feeble regulation has left children dangerously exposedto the risks of smoking. "There are .. kids who have fallen victim to the impact ofcigarette companies and smoking. They are addicted. In the contextof people's rights, the society has been disadvantaged by thetobacco industry," head of the National Commission for ChildProtection, Arist Merdeka Sirait, said. Indonesia is something of a paradise for both smokers and tobaccocompanies, with the world's fifth largest population of smokers. Itis a widely tolerated habit and one which even in this relativelypoor archipelago most can afford to feed. And it is getting more popular as the economy grows. In 1995, onein four Indonesians smoked. Fifteen years later it had risen to onein three. That in turn has tempted international tobacco firms to join thehugely profitable home-grown ones such as Gudang Garam , P T Djarumand Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, which is now part of Philip MorrisInternational. The government even gives tax incentives for the manufacture ofhand-rolled cigarettes because it provides such a major source ofemployment in east Java where the local firms congregate. Sampoerna said it had only seen reports of the planned lawsuit andcould not comment. Other producers also had no immediate comment. A spokesman for the Federation of Indonesian CigaretteManufacturers said he had heard of the suit but declined commentbecause it was not aimed at the federation. "If a child is smoking is that the problem of the advertisement orthe parents?" spokesman Hasan Aoni said. Addiction trance Ilham Hadi has become something of a poster child for theanti-smoking campaign. He began smoking aged four when his mother Nenah said she gave him3,000 rupiah ($0.32) to buy snacks at school. He bought a cigaretteinstead. The addiction has since blackened his teeth, damaged his skin and,his friends say, made the now nine-year old a useless soccer playerand slow, wheezy runner. "He sometimes bangs on the window at 4 a.m. in the morning to buy acigarette," said Iin Indriyani, who runs a tiny store from thefront room of her home around 100 yards up a winding path from thetwo-room house where Hadi's family lives. "Whenever he wants a cigarette he looks like he is in a trance,"she told Reuters, saying that he sometimes hit her and herdaughters to demand cigarettes. Hadi smokes two packs a day, adding to the financial stress on hisparents given that his father earns only $5-6 per day as a labourerand part-time motor bike taxi driver. "If there is no money left at home, nothing to sell anymore, hewould go to the grocery shop, get money by helping park cars andcome back home with cigarettes, sometimes a pack, sometimes two andexpensive brands too," said his father Umar. His habit has also brought the family unwanted celebrity as mediacrews troop to their house on a hillside beside a rice paddy in thevillage of Karawang Girang around 40 miles (64 km) south of thecapital. The child protection commission paid for Hadi to be treated inMarch and he quit, but last week he ran away from home - not forthe first time - in search of cigarettes and has not been seensince. His case has triggered a debate among the village's 344 residentsabout smoking and an attempt by the head of the village to makeKarawang Girang a smoke-free zone, said Husein, a local governmenthealth worker. But the chances of it leading to a broad national conversationabout the dangers of cigarettes, seen by many as a sign ofsophistication, seem slim. The vast majority of Indonesian smokers puff cigarettes laced withcloves, called kretek, a word based on the crackling sound made bythe burning, heavily scented spice. So pervasive is the habit that tobacco products are the number twoitem in household expenditure after rice, according to thestatistics bureau. Health worker Husein blames advertising. Billboards in the mainstreet near the village feature cigarette advertisements and localentertainment events are often sponsored by tobacco firms. It is a scene replicated across Indonesia's vast network ofislands. The annual cost of smoking-related diseases is estimated as high as11 trillion rupiah, said analyst Abdillah Ahsan of the Universityof Indonesia's Demography Institute. By contrast, cigarette firms are expected to produce 268.4 billioncigarettes in 2012 and contribute $8.45 billion in tax r e venue,according to the finance ministry. It is enough to make national and regional authorities reluctant totighten regulations and risk losing funds. "Every time you want to make a regulation, it is very difficultbecause on every level of the bureaucracy they have been bought bythe cigarette industry," said Tutus Abaci, a member of Indonesia'sNational Commission on Tobacco Control. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Fuel Injector Tester and Cleaner , Battery Charging Machine Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Engine Oil Extractor today!
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