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Cigarette consumption in Indonesia is rising more rapidly than anywhere else in the world. Smoking causes fatal and disabling disease, and it is associ-ated with a very high risk of premature death. Half of all long-term smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, and half of them will die during produc-tive middle age, losing 20–25 years of life. In 1995, 6.4 million Indonesians suffered severe illness as a result of smoking. Deaths and disease from tobacco will soar in the future, unless action is taken. What can be done? Deaths and disease could be prevented if tobacco taxes were raised signifi-cantly; all tobacco advertising and promotion were banned; smoking were prohibited in public places, including workplaces, hospitals, and schools; peo-ple were well informed about the serious health risks from smoking; and smokers who want to quit could get help. Many governments fear that interventions to reduce smoking could have harmful economic con-sequences. Some worry that reduced sales of ciga-rettes would mean the permanent loss of thousands of jobs, that higher tobacco taxes would result in lower government revenues, and that higher prices would encourage large-scale cigarette smuggling. A recent World Bank report, “Curbing th