DOH urged to implement ‘intensive’ campaign on smoking ban

Senator JV Ejercito on Friday urged the Department of Health (DOH) to implement an “intensive” campaign on President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order (EO) implementing a smoking ban nationwide.

Ejercito, chair of the Senate health committee, said EO No. 26 should be “enforced effectively” just how the smoking ban in Davao City was implemented.

“I am calling on the Department of Health to initiate an intensive media campaign -- TV, radio, print, social media, and other information drives -- as E.O. No. 26 takes effect to make enforcement less challenging,” Ejercito said in a statement.

The senator said smoking is a risk factor that accounts for more than 85 percent of lung cancer deaths.

“Lung cancer is also the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Philippines. With Davao City as primary example of a smoke-free city, it is just incumbent for President Rodrigo Duterte to act on this through a nationwide smoking ban in all public places,” Ejercito added.

Duterte signed the EO on May 16, providing for the establishment of smoke-free environments in public and enclosed places.

Section 3 of the EO covered acts that are considered unlawful and prohibited.

• Smoking within enclosed public places and public conveyances, whether stationary or in motion, except in designated smoking areas (DSAs)
• Allowing, abetting, or tolerating smoking in prohibited areas
• Smoking, selling, or buying tobacco products by minors
• Selling, distributing, or purchasing tobacco products while using the defense that one didn't know the real age of a minor or didn't know nor had any reason to believe that the product would be consumed by a minor
• Ordering, instructing, or compelling a minor to use, light up, buy, sell, distribute, deliver, advertise, or promote tobacco products
• Selling or distributing tobacco products in a school, public playground, youth hostels, and recreational facilities for minors, including those frequented by minors, or within 100 meters from any point of the perimeter of these places
• Placing, posting, displaying, or distributing advertisement and promotional materials of tobacco products, such as but not limited to leaflets, posters, display structures, and other materials within 10 meters from the perimeter of a school, public playground, and other facilities frequented particularly by minors, hostel, and recreational facilities for minors, including those frequented by them, or in an establishment when its location is prohibited from selling tobacco products
• Placing any form of tobacco advertisement outside of the premises of point-of-sale retail establishments
• Placing any stall, booth, and other displays concerning tobacco promotions to areas outside the premises of point-of-sale locations or adult-only facilities

— RSJ, GMA News