Only 50 Pct Cigarette Manufacturers Place Warning Labels On Products

Jakarta, Oct 10 (Antara) - Only 50 percent of the cigarette producers in Indonesia place warning labels on their products, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi revealed here on Friday after launching an anti-smoking video campaign. "For those producers who have obeyed the government`s regulation, I say thank you. For those who have not, I guess they just do not understand the rules," Nafsiah stated. According to the minister, the government had issued a regulation in June, which made it mandatory for cigarette producers to place warning labels on their products. "Thereafter, we have constantly monitored the implementation of the regulation," Nafsiah affirmed. When asked whether the government will impose a sanction on cigarette producers who did not adhere to the regulation, Nafsiah remarked that she will take up the matter with the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM). The minister also emphasized her readiness to firmly implement the warning label regulation despite the financial clout of cigarette producers. In June 2014, the Indonesian government had implemented Government Regulation Number 109 and Health Minister Regulation Number 28 on the mandatory placement of a health warning label on every cigarette pack distributed in Indonesia. "It is obligatory for both the local and foreign companies marketing their products in Indonesia," stated Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksono. Agung pointed out that the government had given a three-month deadline to the cigarette companies to adopt the new regulation and withdraw cigarette packs without warning labels from the market. "Our intention is not to kill the cigarette industry. The warning label aims to protect young Indonesians from the negative effects of smoking," emphasized Agung. A research revealed that Indonesian smokers consumed at least 302 billion cigarettes in 2013, thereby placing Indonesia on the top of the Southeast Asian smokers` list. The research results of the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia`s Economic Faculty indicated that cigarette consumption in Indonesia accounted for 46.16 percent of the population. Active smokers of both genders in Indonesia increased by 35 percent or about 61.4 million in 2013 as compared to the previous year, the research data showed. It was revealed that deaths caused by smoking-related diseases in 2010 reached 190,260 or about 12.7 percent of all deaths recorded in the same year.