Regulate or ban e-cigs, vape? Senators divided

Senators are divided on whether to regulate or totally ban the use, sale, manufacture, and distribution of e-cigarettes, vapes, and other electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS) in the country.

Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Pia Cayetano are pushing for regulation while Senator Francis Tolentino wants it to be prohibited in the Philippines.

Gatchalian expressed concern that e-cigarettes in the country continues to be marketed as a safer product that can wean smokers off their nicotine addiction even if such claims are unproven.

“We are already preparing a bill, which we will file soon, to regulate the packaging, advertisement, sale, and distribution of e-cigarettes in the country, including Juul (a cartridge-based e-cigarette),” he said in a press statement.

“Also, the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of these products are claiming that e-cigarettes are safer or healthier alternatives to traditional cigarettes so we need a regulatory framework to check the safety claims of the e-cigarettes that are being sold in the market. This is necessary to assure the public of the effects to their health of the chemicals or substances they ingest in their bodies,” Gatchalian added.

He lamented that the lack of stricter regulation on the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes makes it easily available and appealing to children and adolescents, like the 16-year-old girl from Central Visayas.

He said the first reported electronic cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI) case in the Philippines is more than enough reason to be concerned with the welfare of many Filipinos and implement a stricter regulation on the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes in the country.

“Sabi nga nila prevention is better than cure. Ngayon nga na nagtala na ang Department of Health ng isang kaso ng EVALI dito sa Pilipinas, nararapat lang na iregulate ang paggamit ng e-cigarettes at vapes dito sa Pilipinas para hindi na dumami pa ang kaso ng EVALI dito sa bansa,” he said.

Cayetano, chairperson of the ways and means committee that is pushing for additional tax on e-cigarettes and vapes, said she will also be filing a separate pro-health bill to 'highly regulate' e-cigarette products in the country.

“I intend to file a bill, which I believe is more comprehensive and reflective of the need to highly regulate a product that poses a health risk to the Filipinos. It’s in the drafting stage and I’d say it’s about 90 percent complete,” she said.

She said such regulations include banning the sale of the products to young people (including youth above 18 years old); strictly regulating advertisements; and prohibiting the sale of e-cigs in certain places like convenience stores, where they can be easily accessible to the youth.

Tolentino, on the other hand, filed Senate Bill 1183 or the Electronic Smoking Prohibition Act seeking to prohibit the  use, sale, manufacture, distribution, trade, importation, and marketing of ENDS/ENNDS or devices that heat a solution to create an aerosol which the user then inhales.

Included in the ban, if the bill is enacted into law, are e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn devices, vape, e-sheesha, e-nicotine flavored hookah, and the likes.

Violators will be fined with not less than P50,000 but not more than P1 million for each violation, depending on the gravity of the offense.

Under the bill, the President may, upon recommendation of the Department of Health and after a comprehensive study and research, lift the prohibition should it be proven that their use is substantially less harmful than cigarettes to the health of users and non-users alike.

Upon the lifting of the prohibition, ENDS/ENNDS shall be subject to the same regulations provided in Republic Act 922 or the Tobacco Regulation Act. ENDS/ENNDS shall also be subject to the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier announced a ban on the use and importation of vape as he ordered law enforcers to arrest vape smokers in public. An executive order is expected to be issued for the purpose. — RSJ, GMA News