STRESSING that the bill will deregulate the nicotine industry and go directly “against” the President’s campaign promise to fight substance abuse and addiction, the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) urged President Duterte to veto Senate Bill (SB) 2239 or the proposed Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act.
“Mr. President, your campaign promise was to fight substance abuse and addiction. Once passed, this bill will deregulate the nicotine, and will go directly against your campaign. It will certainly pass the bicameral committee without further amendments. We thus repeat our plea for you to veto SB 2239 in its entirely, to give medical societies more time to present our case for true regulation,” the PCP said in a statement.
They also deplored the Senates approval on third and final reading of SB 2239.
The bill reduces the age limit for vaping from 21 to 18 years old, and transfers regulatory powers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Department of Health (DOH), to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Meanwhile, HealthJustice Philippines, a nongovernment organization, expressed alarm on the recent development.
“HealthJustice is strongly against this bill for being anti-children and anti-health for it allows 18 years old to purchase and use the vaporized nicotine products (VNP), such as vapes and HTPs, allows online sales and does not ban fruit and candy flavors attractive to children,” said lawyer Benedict Nisperos, Legal Consultant of HeathJustice.
Nisperos insisted that vapes and e-cigarettes are not safe.
HealthJustice reiterated that quitting smoking and approved cessation services are the best alternatives, being a proven safe way to stop the deadly addiction.
The goal of cessation, HealthJustice emphasized, is to stop smoking and end nicotine dependence and “not to shift” smokers to new nicotine addiction which have been proven to cause EVALI or e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury.
Senator Ralph Recto and other proponents of the bill support tobacco industry had asserted that vape and HTPs “reduce harm” compared to cigarettes.
But health experts and health advocates believe otherwise.
They claimed that the truth is that these products can “increase harm” especially when taken by young people and non-smokers.
Nicotine, they stressed, is an addictive substance and studies have shown that users are more likely to use other addictive substances.
Studies showed, they added, that e-cigarettes increase the use of tobacco by 100 percent, use of marijuana by 500 percent, and use of illicit drugs like amphetamines by 300 percent.