Anti-tobacco harm coalition urges use of alternative products

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) urged Asian governments, including the Philippines, to support the use of alternative modalities and instruments to help reduce the global harms of combustible and unsafe tobacco products.

CAPHRA made its call as the Philippine government started crafting the Implementing Rules and Regulation for the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act, also known as the Vape Law.

CAPHRA said that over-restrictive government policies on using vapes and other similar products, including e-cigarettes, contradict the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty's intent and objective.

“We, the consumers of safer nicotine products and those adults who currently smoke, ought to be the principal beneficiaries of enlightened, science-based regulatory frameworks allowing us access to these life-saving technologies," said CAPHRA said in the "The Manila Declaration-2022" manifesto. 

"Instead, we continue to be marginalized, ignored, denigrated, and attacked, our choices restricted, and our rights denied and our lives and health are negatively impacted by the continuing failure of WHO and its funders to follow its own mandates or to consider the science,” it added.

The Vape Law provides regulations on the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, use, and communication of vape products and novel tobacco products.

It also transfers the regulatory powers over the products from the Food and Drug Administration to the Department of Trade and Industry. — DVM, GMA News