UNAIR NEWS – Indonesian Association of Public Health Experts (IAKMI) East Java Regional Board (Pengda) (East Java) in collaboration with Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) held The 5 th Indonesian Conference on Tobacco or Health (ICTOH) 2018. The conference is regular agenda of Tobacco Control Support Center (TCSC).
TCSC is a special agency for tobacco control of IAKMI as the upgrade of Tobacco Control Problems. The event held on Sunday-Tuesday (6-8 / 5) at Hotel Bumi Surabaya was entitled “United Indonesia Creates Generations Without Tobacco”.
Chairman of IAKMI East Java Regional Office Dr. Djazuly Chalidyanto, SKM., MARS., In a press conference stated that TCSC is a special body in charge of advocating and controlling tobacco such as by dissemination to the community and assistance in the preparation of regional regulations without cigarettes.
“In addition, it holds hearings with the legislative and executive, research on tobacco or cigarettes, workshops, as well as discussion to control tobacco or cigarettes,” he said.
According to Dr. Djazuly, the problems of cigarettes in Indonesia require serious and sustainable handling. Although similar conferences have been held four times, the theme of tobacco and its control continue to require mutual attention.
“This cigarette is an addictive substance. In accordance with PP 102/2012, addictive substances are ingredients that result in addiction that endangers health. The signs are from the behavior, cognitive, and physiological phenomena. There is a constant desire to consume these ingredients, “he explained.
Chairman of the ICTOH 2018 Committee, Sri Widati, S.Sos., M.Si., explained that ICTOH was held because the epidemic condition of cigarette consumption in Indonesia reached an alarming point. Indonesia, she added, by world health organization (WHO) was ranked the third largest country with smokers in the world after China and India.
“20 percent of people aged 13-15 years are smokers,” she said. “Therefore, we also held a workshop in the form of Youth Conference for young people, a discussion and activity to prevent smoking through attractive and exciting activities,” she added.
On the other hand, about the conference, Dr. Santi Martini, dr., M.Kes, explained that the involvement of UNAIR, especially Faculty of Public Health (FKM), was the momentum of strengthening its commitment as UNAIR is included among universities with a high commitment to tobacco control.
Dr. Santi added that the commitment was seen in several policies. UNAIR prohibits sponsorship of internal activities from tobacco companies, including establishing a partnership with these companies.
“Because this orientation is control, and control is related to the generation. Educational institutions are important to be involved. And, UNAIR has a commitment to it, ” she said.
“Even in the health field, we have advantages. In FKM, there are a lot of researches on tobacco. In fact, there is a working group or a group of research groups in the FKM public health division that focus on this issue (Tobacco, ed), ” she added.
Responding to the implementation of the conference, the Dean of FKM UNAIR Prof. Dr. Tri Martiana dr., MS., stated that the involvement of FKM on tobacco problem has been long. The involvement is shown from the regulation of tobacco or tobacco issues.
“We are very supportive. Collaboration towards regulatory policies related to tobacco should be supported by research and in-depth discussion. It’s important that young people are not polluted by cigarette smoke, ” she said.
“It’s important to keep this nation healthy,” she added. (*)
Author: Feri Fenoria Rifai
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
