JAKARTA  The number of Indonesia’s young smokers continues to increase and more than 80 percent of cigarette smokers in 2007 were less than 19 years old, Antara news agency quoted an expert as saying on Tuesday.

Prof Veni made the remarks on the sidelines of a “Leadership and Management for Tobacco Control” evaluation which was conducted by the Indonesian Tobacco Impact Control Networks in Makassar, capital of South Sulawesi province. Another contradictive phenomenon is that the smoking cost of poor people is higher than those of rich ones, Veni said, adding that based on ITCN’S survey, poor people spent 11 percent of their monthly earnings on smoking, while the rich ones have only 9.7 percent.

On the other hand, people’s protection from tobacco waste only got a small priority in public health programs. “The absence of a tobacco control law has been used maximally by cigarette industries to expand their market. Ironically, such industries were even hailed as protectors to help people avoid poverty and ignorance,” Veni said.

As the result, children, teenagers and poor people can buy cigarettes easily because the cigarettes are also sold in retail and the cigarette hazard warnings written on the cigarette packs is only used as an illustration, the dean said.