SWP urges govt to stand ground against vape, ecig promoters;

The government should resist pressure tactics being employed by forces behind the popular use of vape, more popularly known as electronic cigarettes (ecig) and heated tobacco products (HTPs).

“Despite what private business interests are saying, vape and/or ecig, remains a health risk and is a public health issue especially now with the Covid-19 global pandemic,” local budget watchdog said in a statement.

According to the SWP, the key phrase is ‘substantially less harmful than cigarettes.’ “It is like saying how much poison is not poisonous enough, or how much harm is not harmful enough,” the group said.

The group also strongly supports President Duterte’s strong stance against smoking in public, including the use of addictive vape and ecig because of the inherent health dangers of the tobacco novel products, and a way to protect the youth and children from second and thirdhand smoke.

In a letter to the President, SWP appeals for a swift and decisive action to prevent and arrest major policy reversals that will shove the people, particularly the youth and other vulnerable sectors, into a useless life-long addiction to cigarettes and other tobacco novel products.

“The reason why studies are important and funding the studies by well-meaning individuals and organizations to promote public health are intended for the people and policymakers to be assisted with evidence-base information to guide them in crafting pro-health and pro-people laws and policies against the well-oiled marketing arms of private smoking promoters and tobacco industry funded front groups,” the public budget watchdog explained.

The SWP said that aside from the harm the chemicals used in vapes and ecigs could give to its consumers, smoking is also a public health issue.

“Smokers, whether the traditional cigarettes or vape, once they acquire smoking-related diseases will inadvertently or eventually access health institutions that are funded by the government, meaning by the taxes from the people who are expecting that these be put into better use and not on the vice-induced diseases,” the group said.

The SWP further explained that vape and ecig has a social dimension, therefore the decision and policies should not be left to those who are currently practicing it and the private business interest groups behind it.

“Groups funded by the tobacco industry use the same tactics laid down much earlier by cigarette companies by projecting the vice as ‘cool’ especially to the more easily swayed younger population, only to succumb to various smoke-related diseases affecting the public health in general,” the SWP concluded.

SWP advocates among others for the strict implementation of EO 26 or the no smoking in public places and EO 106 or the strict regulation of vape and ecig.