A video of a two-year-old smoker has taken social media by storm in the last 24 hours, and thousands of incensed adults continue to denounce smoking by minors in Indonesia, where the video was filmed, and worldwide.
The toddler’s name is Ardi Rizal, and he lives in a fishing village in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province. According to reports, Ardi’s father gave him his first cigarette at 18 months of age.
The Central Statistics Agency indicated that the percentage of 5-to-9-year-olds who were lighting up in Indonesia increased from 0.4 percent in 2001 to 2.8 percent in 2004.
There are 245 billion cigarettes produced each year in Indonesia according to the Industry Ministry there, and Indonesia is the world’s third-largest consumer of cigarettes. Major causes of youth smoking in Indonesia include family influence and peer pressure, the low cost and low tax rates of cigarettes, and a lack of advertising guidelines or restraints.
In April, protests from fans and anti-tobacco groups in Indonesia forced a cigarette company to withdraw its sponsorship of pop star Kelly Clarkson’s concert.
In the United States, numbers appear to have leveled out among young smokers. The Washington Post reported that the number of smoking teenagers fell sharply and steadily between 1997 and 2003, but later surveys found the proportion of teens who smoke leveled off between 2003 and 2007. The proportion of U.S. students who smoked soared from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 36.4 percent in 1997 but then began to fall, hitting 23 percent in 2005.
A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study showed that 80 percent of U.S. smokers begin before the age of 18. A similar study published by the American Lung Association showed that 90 percent of smokers begin before the age of 21.
The CDC also found that:
1. About 3,900 teens under 18 start smoking each day.
2. Of the 3,900 teens that start smoking each day, 1,500 become regular smokers.
3. Those who smoke often have secondary behavioral issues such as violence, drug/alcohol use, and high-risk sexual behavior.
Smokers and non-smokers can agree: Smoking among youths is a global problem, and too many people are dying at too young of an age due to tobacco use. Even the conservative statistics bear this out.
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