WITH the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announcing that it has intensified its enforcement activities to ensure vape products sold in the market comply with Republic Act 11900 (Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act), child rights advocates have high expectations on the government body to pursue a child-friendly interpretation of the law.
Child Rights Network, the largest alliance of organizations pushing for children’s rights legislation in the Philippines, and the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, together with Parents against Vape, said DTI must ensure strict enforcement of the law to protect children from marketing tactics of the tobacco and vape industry. This strict enforcement includes banning youthful marketing strategies and restricting flavors of e-cigarettes and vapes to conventional tobacco and menthol.
Indeed, there’s a proliferation of vape products and flavors that target the youth. The implementing rules and regulations of RA 11900 have taken effect on Dec. 28, 2022 giving vape manufacturers and importers an 18-month transitory period until June 5, 2024, to comply with product registration and certification requirements. Under the new law, only those registered with the Bureau of Product Standards and certified as Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products, their devices, and Novel Tobacco Products with the applicable graphic and textual health warnings, are allowed to be sold to the general public by June 2024.
We distinctly note DTI’s emphasis on monitoring the sale of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products that violate the restrictions on flavor descriptors and marketing strategies that directly cater to the youth. This is a step in the right direction toward ending the epidemic of e-cigarette use among the young.
DTI reported that it has issued Notices of Violations to establishments selling Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products, their devices, and Novel Tobacco Products with “markings or characters such as cartoons, anime, manga, animated characters, youth influencers, personalities, and the like as well as those that are packaged, labeled, presented or marketed with flavor descriptors such as fruit, candy brand, dessert, or cartoon character.”
While we welcome DTI’s commitment to strictly regulate vape products, much is needed to regulate this industry that has long enjoyed loopholes in 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.
While the principles that lay the foundations of RA 11900 remain skewed – it looked at vape regulation as a matter of trade regulation and not as a health issue – we trust that concerned governmental agencies will address this concern by continuing to issue rules and guidelines that further regulate not only the vape and e-cigarette industry but the entire tobacco industry.
Let’s create pathways that protect children from toxic, addicting products.
