Tobacco industry has long targeted young people as "replacement smokers"

April 27, 2009 - Nearly half of the world's smokers live in three countries - China, India and Indonesia - and many are picking up the habit at a very young age. In China, one in 10 boys aged 14 are smokers, and in Indonesia a third of students report taking their first puff before the age of 10. As smoking rates decline in the West, the tobacco industry has been setting its sights on the developing world.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the tobacco industry has long targeted young people as so-called "replacement smokers" to take the place of those who quit or die. Susan Lawrence, head of China programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has told ABC Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the high smoking rates among adults in China make it more attractive to children. "The message that society sends them is that smoking is normal, that if you're in a public place, you're smoking," she said. "And there's this sense that this... is what men do. Grown up men smoke and boys who want to look grown up smoke.

Dina Kania, a youth advocate for Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection in Jakarta, says the industry is aggressively targeting young people through sponsorship. "We have been doing tobacco industry surveillance since 2008 and it is very obvious and evident that they are targeting young people," she said. "They sponsor music events and we have monitored about 1,350 events sponsored by the tobacco industry and most of those events were attended by children and teenagers."

Ms Lawrence says while there are some advertising restriction in China, the promotions and sponsorships are clearly aimed at the country's youth. "There are a lot of schools in rural areas which carry tobacco brand names," she said."They do promotional events in shopping malls, bringing on very popular breakdancing routines or popular singers to entice crowds - and a lot of people in those crowds are kids."

Tax revenue: Ms Kania says Indonesia's government is hesitant to regulate the tobacco industry because of the tax revenue it provides - up to one-tenth of all government revenue in the country. "The myth of the profits made by the tobacco industry, of their contribution to our country, is very strong in our country," she said. "So that's why the Government won't buy our arguments, our tobacco control advocate arguments, because they believe the tobacco industry more than us."

But Ms Lawrence says in China, tobacco tax is about 40 per cent of the retail price, compared to the international norm of about 65 per cent of the price. She says subsidies on the cheaper cigarettes, aimed at the rural markets, are also allowing more children to afford to smoke - and increasing taxes and reducing subsidies do not hurt the poor. "I think that they actually help the poor in all sorts of ways," she said. "The poor are the most price sensitive group out there, so if you raise tobacco taxes, you're going to see an awful lot of those people either quitting smoking or sharply reducing their consumption of cigarettes. "Not only does it help with household incomes... but it also helps reduce tobacco-related illness, [which] can send people rapidly into serious poverty because there's no social safety net to cover big medical prices."

Parental responsibility: WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003, sets out measures for countries to protect against the dangers of tobacco, including limits on taxation, government policies, advertising and distribution. There are 164 parties to the convention, including China, who ratified the agreement in 2005, and Ms Lawrence says the Chinese needs to live up to its commitments. "I just think it's awfully hard for parents, when the signals that society is sending is that smoking is normal and that in fact, in China, that to be a real man, you have to smoke," she said. "I think government really needs to play a role in taking on those messages." Indonesia has so far not signed up to the framework - the only South-East Asian WHO member not involved. Ms Kania says without the Government's help, the issue of smoking has grown too big for parents to deal with. "As parents of course, they do have the responsibility to prevent the children from smoking," she said. "But we should bear in mind that smoking can no longer be perceived as a private issue. "It has become an epidemic and there is a matter of public health and there's this giant tobacco industry that is selling and promotes its product aggressively to young people. "Efforts done by parents, it's so insufficient."

Reference: Tobacco giants 'targeting youth in developing world' by Joanna McCarthy, ABC Radio Australia, 4/22/2009.