Tobacco Control & Disease Prevention for Indonesia's Public Health

According to public health research, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, causing over 7 million premature deaths every year (World Health Organization, 2017). In Indonesia, about 266,000 people die from smoking each year, with 45,000 deaths attributable to second-hand smoking exposure. Furthermore, Indonesia has the highest rate of male smoking in the world, with about 62.9% of adult men identifying as smokers (Institute Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2020). Youth smoking is also prevalent among Indonesians, with about 20% of the population under 15 years of age reported as smokers (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2019). 

Under the Indonesian Health Law and Government Regulation (PP) No. 109 of 2012, smoking should be prohibited in public areas including health care facilities, children’s playgrounds, places of teaching, learning, and worship, public transportation, and workplaces (Article 49). However, as implementation of the “Smoke-Free” law depends upon local governments, it had been found that many public places were not yet in compliance with these environmental health regulations. 

We partnered with Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS) to design and establish the Hasanuddin Centre for Tobacco Control and Non-communicable Disease Prevention under the Faculty of Public Health. Our primary focus was on community mobilization, gathering the viewpoints of diverse stakeholders such as universities, civil society organizations, local government officials, and the media, to advocate for stronger implementation of the smoke free policy. Once the center had been built, key activities included: 

• Conducting community-based environmental health research, analyzing the effects of current tobacco-related policies and health effects to present at conferences 
• Developing workshop trainings and capacity-building for public health educators and advocates
• Direct and indirect lobbying campaigns to improve implementation and compliance of the sub-national Smoke-Free law
• Providing technical assistance to organizations and the local government on best practices for compliance with the smoking ban among the designated areas, as well as removal of tobacco-related advertisements in these locations
• Engaging with local media outlets, local and regional government officials, businesses, religious community, private sector entities, and Indonesia Military to improve health communications regarding tobacco messaging 

The project is approved by the City of Makassar and Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS).