May 31 of every year is dedicated to the advocacy of spreading awareness regarding the ill effects of smoking on our health. Although there is a noted decrease in the use of cigarettes, the emergence of e-cigarettes more commonly known as vapes causes an alarm to health and civic organizations.
The World Health Organization continues to highlight the World No Tobacco Day and for 2024, the observance stresses on the importance of letting the youth across the world speak out and urge their governments to protect and shield them for the "predatory tobacco marketing tactics" targeting them "for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction."
Based on the most recent report from the World Health Organization, there is "an estimated 37 million children aged 13-15 years old use tobacco and in many countries, the rate of e-cigarette use among adolescents exceeds that of adults. In the WHO European Region, 20% of 15-year-olds surveyed reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days."
I have shared in my April 5, 2021 column that it was in 2003 that electronic cigarettes or popularly known as vapes were believed to be invented by a Chinese pharmacist. Vape stores and companies claim that vaping is a healthy substitute for cigarettes but this is not true. According to kidshealth.org, vaping puts nicotine into the body which is highly addictive and can "slow brain development in teens and affect memory, concentration, learning, self-control, attention, and mood." It also increases the risk of other types of addiction later in life. Further, e-cigarettes also "irritate the lungs, and cause serious lung damage and even death." Vaping does not successfully replace smoking and most of the people I know still resort to occasional smoking even smoke cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director, WHO Director of Health Promotion said that "these industries are intentionally designing products and utilizing marketing strategies that appeal directly to children, and the use of child-friendly flavours like cotton candy and bubblegum, combined with sleek and colourful designs that resemble toys, is a blatant attempt to addict young people to these harmful products."
Under Republic Act 11467 (RA 11467), signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in January 2020. Under RA 11467, selling vapor products and HTPs to persons below 21 years old is prohibited. However, the pending bills in the Senate, similar to the substitute bill at the House of Representatives (HoR), intend to reduce the minimum age of restriction to 18.