The call was made by the country`s health minister, Nafsiah Mboi, when speaking during the Indonesian Eastern Region Forum Festival here on Monday.
She said that according to survey results, 67 percent of the country`s population or around 60 million males in the country smoke and cigarette makers have even targeted 30 million new smokers among the young generation.
"If possible, there will be regulations by governors, district heads or mayors in all provinces, districts and cities, respectively, that ban cigarette smoking," she informed.
Mboi, who is a pediatrician, said at a meeting with government officials in Central Sulawesi on Sunday evening that most cancer, hypertension, vascular and asthma patients contracted their diseases due to smoking.
In view of her statements she called for a campaign on awareness for a smoking ban.
She said that the causes of diseases have now shifted from poverty to lifestyles, adding that a lot of diseases contracted by people these days were not contagious but lifestyle related.
The minister said that Central Sulawesi is a region that has health problems. Only three out of 11 district/cities in the region are free of health problems, she informed further.
She said that all parties and sectors have to be involved to overcome the problem.(*)
(A055/H-YH/INE/KR-BSR)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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