Indonesia comes under fire by international censure for its inaction to stop the unbelievable surge in the number of its smokers which now includes elementary school children. This has resulted in the most exponential rise in the consumption of tobacco.

In a report filed by the participants of the 9th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT) 2010, it is seen that Indonesia has witnessed a rise of as much as 400 percent for children between the ages of 10 to 14 from the year 1995 through 2007.

By the year 2007, as many as 65.6 percent of men were smokers and the number of women who smoked increased three times from 1.7 percent to a whopping 5.2 percent heard the conference. The conference also indicated that Indonesia’s tobacco-linked death toll was approximately 200,000 people dying annually.

There were about 700 delegates from a total of 41 countries who took part in the conference which was held at Sydney, Australia from October 9th to 10th. They expressed concern regarding the increasing threat which tobacco was going to cause.