VOTING 192-34 with four abstentions, the House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, approved on final reading a bill regulating the manufacture, use, sale and promotion of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other vaping products.
The bill was passed more than a year after President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order 106, which bans the manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of unregistered or adulterated electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems (Ends/Ennds) and heated tobacco products (HTP).
EO 106, which was issued on February 26, 2020, also mandated establishments to designate smoking or vaping area as well as non-smoking buffer zones.
House Bill No. 9007, entitled "Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems and Heated Tobacco Products Act,” proposes to limit the sale of electronic cigarettes to individuals who are at least 18 years old.
The sale of Ends/Ennds and HTPs to persons under 18 would be unlawful.
The measure also prohibits the use of these products in all enclosed public places, particularly in schools, hospitals, government offices and facilities intended for minors.
Vaping areas may be designated, but these have to comply with certain standards.
The sale of these products within 100 meters of a school is also prohibited.
The bill also specifies the packaging requirements for these products and the health warnings that must be placed on at least half of the display surface.
HB 9007, which is a substitute bill for 23 similar bills, also regulates the importation, sale, distribution, use, advertisement, promotion and sponsorship of Ends/Ennds and HTPs.
The term Ends/Ennds refers to devices or a combination of devices resembling cigarettes, cigars or pipes, which can hold liquid or solid particles that produce mist or vapor which the users inhale to mimic the act of smoking.
The term HTP refers to tobacco products that may be consumed by heating tobacco electronically to generate aerosols that can be inhaled without burning the tobacco.
A similar measure is pending in the Senate.
In November 2019, Duterte issued a verbal order to arrest people who will be caught vaping in public.
The President gave the directive after a 16-year-old girl from Central Visayas became the first case of electronic cigarette or vape-associated lung injury in the Philippines. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)