Medical society: Recall Vape Law

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Heart Association (PHA) is pushing for the recall of the Vape Law as they believe vape smoking still pose risk for cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Ronald Cuyco, PHA vice president, said that the medical society is strongly against the Vape Law and they will continue to push for the recall of the legislation.

“Smoking, including vaping, is so unfortunate that pinalampas ito, it became a law. But the medical society is against it. Our message is dapat i-recall yun,” said Cuyco during the recent launching on Cebu of “52100 Movement” to fight and prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.

Republic Act No. 11900, or the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act, became a law in July 2022.  The law regulates the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, use and communication of vaping products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

On the other hand, the Child Rights Network (CRN), the largest alliance of organizations and agencies pushing for children’s rights legislation in the Philippines, said that the Department of Trade and Industry must ensure strict enforcement of the said law to protect children from the marketing tactics of the tobacco and vape industry.

The CRN, together with the Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), and Parents against Vape (PAV), said that they have “high expectations” on the government body to pursue a child-friendly interpretation of the law, with the DTI announcing that it has intensified its enforcement activities to ensure vape products sold in the market comply with the provisions of RA 11900.

This strict enforcement includes banning youthful marketing strategies and restricting flavors of e-cigarettes and vapes to conventional tobacco and menthol.

“While we welcome DTI’s commitment to implement stricter regulation of vape products, we must emphasize that much is needed to strictly regulate this industry that has long enjoyed loopholes in the country’s rules and regulations. The implementing rules and regulations of RA 11900 may contain acceptable standards, but these may be all for naught if not fully implemented,” CRN said in a statement.

Fight goes on

The group added that they cannot emphasize enough that the fight against marketing e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products to youth and children is a long battle that they cannot afford to waver at any moment.

“We remind the DTI: we are closely monitoring how RA 11900 will be implemented. All violators must face the consequences,” the CRN further said.

As the PHA has noted, cardiovascular diseases strike at any age, and emphasized that smoking remain to be one of the risks in having such disease.

Cuyco added that the “52100 Movement” which means five servings of vegetables and fruits, two grams of sodium daily, one hour of exercise, zero smoking and zero sugary drinks, primarily targets the children so that while they are still young, they can prevent this disease growing up.

“Prevention is still better than cure,” Cuyco said.

Based on the Global Adult Tobacco 2021 Survey, there are around 15.1 million adult tobacco users, 63.7 percent of them are planning to quit smoking but only 3.9 percent were successful in the last 12 months.

“The PH is still largely dependent on asking people to quit cold turkey. There is so much room to explore the various ways of mitigating the harm caused by tobacco, especially by providing less-risky alternatives to smokers who want to quit smoking but can’t do so", said Joze Songsong, project coordinator of the ASCRA Consulting Inc.

PHA Director III and Advocacy Committee Chair Dr. Luigi Pierre Segundo said that every Filipino should be aware of heart diseases as cardiologists have been seeing younger heart attack patients.

Segundo said there are more and more children having obesity due to physical inactivity, the unhealthy food that they eat, and unhealthy lifestyles, these risk factors build up easily, hence they are seeing younger heart attack patients.

Furthermore, public interest law group ImagineLaw warned of the rapidly increasing rate of obesity cases among Filipino children.

“Childhood obesity is harmful and deadly,” said ImagineLaw Executive Director Atty. Sophia San Luis citing data from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) that about one in every 10 children and adolescents aged five to 19 years old is either overweight or obese.

Obesity

Obesity, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in the body. It is a form of malnutrition that presents health risks.

A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Philippines also warned that this number will increase by 30 percent in 2030, if no action is taken to curb factors.

“Three in 10 Filipino children are likely to be either overweight or obese by 2030. Habang tumatanda, tumataas din ang tyansa nila na magkaroon ng heart disease, diabetes, cancer, at depresyon,” she added.

San Luis said that one of the biggest drivers of childhood obesity is the availability and aggressive promotion of unhealthy food and sweetened beverages to children.

“Children are now bombarded with advertisements that encourage unhealthy eating behaviors. It is high time to protect Filipino children from unhealthy food marketing. Regulating unhealthy food marketing will protect children’s lives,” she further said.

ImagineLaw said that they will be convening stakeholders and parents to develop and push for legislation that will curb unhealthy food marketing to children. —/GAN (FREEMAN)