JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian men rank as the world’s top smokers, with two out of three of them lighting up in a country where cigarettes cost pennies and tobacco advertising is everywhere.

A survey released Tuesday found that 67 percent of all males over 15 years old smoke. The archipelago ranked second only to Russia in overall smoking, with a rate of 35 percent vs. 39 percent.

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A survey found that 67 percent of Indonesian males over age 15 smoke, but only 3 percent of women. “We have failed in protecting our people,” said the health minister. The Associated Press

“We have failed in protecting our people,” said Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi, commenting on the rate of male smokers jumping from 53 percent since 1995. “We have been defeated by the tobacco industry. … We don’t want this, we cannot accept this because our job is to protect people from cigarettes.”

More than 8,000 people participated in the study last year, which is part of a global series of surveys taken in 15 countries with heavy tobacco use and supported by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also found a high rate of Indonesians were subjected to second-hand smoke at work, home and in public places.

Mboi said she was particularly alarmed to learn that nearly 80 percent of Indonesians are exposed to smoke at home.

“How is the number of parents smoking at home with kids so high? … They are damaging their children’s lungs, whether intentionally or not,” she said.

Most Indonesian men crave kreteks, a pungent mixture of tobacco and cloves, but brands such as Marlboro, produced by U.S.-based Philip Morris International, have also gained in popularity. About 3 percent of women in the country smoke.

Health regulations passed in 2009 call for a number of tighter tobacco controls, including bans on ads and on smoking in public places, but the government has yet to implement them.

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