The City of Bandung Wins the No Smoking Area Award from the Ministry of Health

The award was given by the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Maxi Rein Rondunuwu to Acting Mayor of Bandung, Ema Sumarna at the Peak of World No Tobacco Day (HTTS) 2023, at the Siwabessy Auditorium, Prof. Sujudi Building, Ministry of Health, Jakarta, Thursday June 8, 2023.

"Alhamdulillah, the city of Bandung won an award regarding the implementation of KTR. Hopefully this will be our effort to increase KTR in the city of Bandung," said Acting Mayor of Bandung, Ema Sumarna.

On that occasion, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, said that as many as 349 million people in 79 low- and middle-income countries were facing acute food insecurity. This is due to the use of large tracts of fertile land for growing tobacco rather than planting highly nutritious crops.

"Countries that grow tobacco often suffer economic consequences due to the adverse health, environmental and social impacts of growing tobacco," he said.

He explained, Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco producing countries in the world with a land area of 204,330 hectares and tobacco production of 224,660 tons in 2022.

Tobacco products, continued Dante, include cigarettes, cigars, leaf cigarettes, sliced tobacco, e-cigarettes, and other tobacco processing products.

"The results of the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) released by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2021, show that cigarettes are the second largest percentage of poor household expenditure, namely 11.90% in urban areas and 11.24% in rural areas, compared to nutritious food such as eggs, chicken or others," he said.

Based on this, World No Tobacco Day (HTTS), which is celebrated every year on May 31, carries the global theme "We Need Food, Not Tobacco" for 2023.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health intends to hold a top event in commemoration of HTTS 2023 with the national theme "We Need Food, Not Cigarettes". (yan)**

Head of the Bandung City Communication and Informatics Agency

Yayan A. Brilyana