Veto the vape bill

A bill that puts at risk the health of about 2 million Filipino youths is awaiting President Duterte’s signature. Health experts and educators are now racing against time to call on the President to veto the measure, which lowers the age of access to vape and e-cigarette products from 21 to 18 years old, before it lapses into law any time soon.

“Vapes and e-cigarettes are harmful and not risk-free,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in a webinar organized by non-profit law organization ImagineLaw last Thursday. Duque said that vapes and e-cigarettes contain chemicals that are “highly toxic, addictive, and cancer-causing” like conventional cigarettes, and can increase the risk of heart, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases. “[The measure] is contrary to public health goals. It is a retrogressive policy that undermines the country’s progress in tobacco prevention and control.”

The Department of Education (DepEd) also released a statement taking a stand against the proposed Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems Regulation Act, which, it said, will weaken Republic Act No. 11467 and Executive Order No. 106 both signed by Mr. Duterte in 2020 that already set to 21 the age of access to vapes and e-cigarettes. Aside from lowering the age restriction, the proposed law transfers regulatory power to the Department of Trade and Industry from the Food and Drug Administration, allows online sale, and relaxes prohibitions on vape flavors beyond menthol and tobacco.

The DepEd cited a study conducted by the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) before the pandemic which showed that 6.7 percent or 11,500 learners in Grades 7 to 9 who were surveyed have tried or were using e-cigarettes. The study further revealed top reasons why these products were popular: online accessibility (32 percent), varied flavors (22 percent), and the belief that they were safer than tobacco (17 percent).

Lawmakers who support the measure believe that vapes and e-cigarettes are “less harmful” compared to regular cigarettes and that regulating the use of these products could help lower the smoking rate in the country. “Can you imagine how many lives would have been saved if instead of smoking, they shifted to these types of products?” said Sen. Ralph Recto.

But are they really safe? Like regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vapes also produce harmful second-hand smoke through their vapor plumes. Experts pointed out that e-liquid or e-juice used in vapes contain harmful and toxic chemicals that can affect small lung airways. These chemicals include nicotine— addictive because once inhaled causes the release of dopamine in the brain; acetone; ethylbenzene (used as a solvent for paints); and rubidium (commonly used in fireworks to produce purple colors). Health experts pointed out that nicotine, for example, can affect the development of the brain, which only fully develops in an individual’s mid-20s. Thus, exposing young people to products that contain nicotine could affect their learning, hamper impulse control, cause mood disorders, put them at risk of drug addiction, or cause EVALI or electronic cigarette or vape-associated lung injury.

In 2019, the Philippines reported its first EVALI case in a 16-year-old female from the Visayas who was a “dual user”—she had been using e-cigarettes for six months while also consuming regular cigarettes. Then Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo said “no e-cigarette product should be accessible to young children and adolescents, who are uniquely susceptible to the harms of e-cigarettes and nicotine. I urge non-users not to even try e-cigarettes at all.”

The proposed law, as Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Benito Atienza warned, will not address the country’s smoking problem because instead of tightening regulations, it is even relaxing them and putting at risk young people by encouraging them to start a harmful habit. He added that the bill is anti-poor, anti-youth, and anti-health, and will discredit the government’s progress in tobacco prevention and control over the last decade.

“Before we make measures, let us try to review our history and what smoking has done to the older population,” said Dr. Riz Gonzales, chair of the PPS’ Tobacco Control Advocacy Group. According to the Department of Health, 87,600 Filipinos die annually from tobacco-related diseases with the government spending P188 billion a year on health care expenditures. “By removing that prohibition, you are allowing a Pandora’s box to open [and] drop our children and say sorry after … ang bisyo ay bisyo, hindi ‘yan essential product.”

Exposing young people to a vice that puts their health at risk despite numerous studies showing the harms of nicotine addiction is contrary to the country’s commitment to sustainable development goals. The science points to only one course of action for the President: Veto the vape bill now.