Smoking kills 57,000 Indonesians each year: report
09/05/04
JAKARTA (AFP) - Smoking kills about 57,000 Indonesians each year through fatal heart and artery conditions, a regional official with the Indonesian Heart Foundation said, according to a state news report.
The chapter head of the Central Kalimantan branch of the foundation, Noor Asiah Asmawi Agani, told journalists in Palangkaraya, the province's capital, that smoking led to about 57,000 deaths in the country each year.
Agani was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying that the government should protect non-smokers and discourage the habit by possibly raising tobacco taxes, enforcing low tar content levels and supervising advertisements for cigarettes.
Smoking is a common practice in Indonesia and even though some public areas are designated non-smoking, including public transport, enforcement is almost non-existent.
The cigarette industry provides the country with its largest taxpayers and millions of jobs. Cigarettes excises contribute an annual sum of around 27 trillion rupiah (2.89 billion dollars) to state coffers.
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