Vape bill awaits final approval

Photo by Pixabay
Photo by Pixabay

THE Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation bill or Vape bill is now awaiting approval from President Rodrigo Duterte after being passed in both the House and the Senate recently.

The vape bill, which was ratified by Congress last month, aims to regulate vaporized nicotine products and will give 16 million adult smokers in the country the less harmful options like e-cigarettes.

More than a million former smokers, including politicians and celebrities, such as Davao City Vice Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, Manila Mayor and presidential candidate Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso and actor Vic Sotto, have already stopped smoking and switched to less harmful alternatives, according to Vaper AKO and Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP).

Joaqui Gallardo, spokesman of Vaper AKO, said progressive countries like the United States, the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand had already embraced these non-combustible alternatives, following extensive scrutiny by their respective public health institutions.

Public Health England said vapor products are 95 percent less harmful than traditional cigarettes, while the US Food and Drugs Administration said nicotine is not the primary cause of smoking-related illness, but the smoke from combustion.

A UK study concluded that non-combustible alternatives are twice as effective than the nicotine replacement therapy in helping the smokers quit.

Scientific studies show that the smoke produced by burning is the one responsible for millions of deaths globally and this could be reduced if smokers would switch to smoke-free or non-combustible products.

Gallardo said that in the Philippines, more than a million former smokers have already made the switch.

NCUP president Anton Israel said more adult smokers who wanted to quit smoking before have finally found an alternative to the deadly habit.

Israel said that even Moreno, who was a former Marlboro smoker, has switched to IQOS (heated tobacco product) due to health reasons.

One of the senators who voted for the passage of the bill was Senate President Vicente Sotto III. The senator said that his own brother, TV host and actor Vic Sotto, was able to quit smoking with the help of heated tobacco product.

“My brother was a heavy smoker for 45 years. He has stopped smoking for good and switched to heated tobacco and is now very healthy,” Sotto said.

The Senate president, however, discouraged the youth and non-smokers from using these alternative tobacco products.

Congress is strictly prohibiting minors from using these products. The bill bans the sale of vape products within 100 meters of school perimeter.

The display of flavor descriptors for vape products immediately next to products of particular interest to minors is prohibited.

The vape bill also ensures that these smoke-free products are registered with and regulated by the Department of Trade and Industry, thereby preventing smuggling and illicit trade of substandard nicotine products.

It will also support the 2.7 million Filipino farmers and workers who rely on the tobacco industry for their livelihood.

Senatorial bet and House Deputy Speaker Dante Marcoleta on Friday last week urged President Duterte to sign the Vape Bill into law, noting the urgent need to regulate vapor products in order to protect public health and stop the entry of illegal products.

Close to 100,000 Filipinos die every year from smoking-related diseases and the country's annual quit rate, or those smokers who will stop smoking each year, is a very low four percent.

Marcoleta said majority of the Filipinos want to see an end to the sale of cigarettes in the country because smoking kills.

However, if we do not give an alternative to smokers who cannot stop smoking, then the deaths will continue. That's why I think the Vape Bill is Congress's reply to the public's clamor to stop the smoking epidemic in the country, he added.

According to a recent survey conducted by Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants, the largest independent Asian research network, 94 percent of Filipinos agree that the government should enact policies to encourage adult smokers to switch to less harmful tobacco alternatives.

Once the Senate Bill 2239, or the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act, is signed into law, the government will properly regulate the sale and use of these products and provide a new revenue stream for public coffers in support of the Universal Health Care program.

It will also include the Philippines in the list of countries that recognize tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy.

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