REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Chairman of the Special Agency on Tobacco Control of Indonesia Public Health Association (IAKMI) Widyastuti Soerojo said there were 625 million smokers in ASEAN.

"The number of smokers in Indonesia is the biggest of ASEAN countries because a large amount of its population,” she said in the workshop on Effective Control of Tobacco Consumption and Allocations for Health Financing, on Tuesday, June 9.

There were many new smokers lied by tobacco industry through its extremely attractive ads. "There are 36 thousand beginner smoker per day and teenage smokers of 13 million people per year."

The tobacco industry, said Widyastuti, was targeting young people because to perpetuate the industry there must be a younger generation of smokers. If there were no new smokers, the tobacco industry will go bankrupt.

"The price of cigarettes in Indonesia is also very affordable and relatively cheap. Even beggars could able to buy cigarettes," she said.

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