The Philippines is poised to join the ranks of progressive countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand which are seeing sharp declines in the number of smokers with the passage of the so-called vape bill in the Senate and the House of Representatives, two leading international experts on tobacco harm reduction said.
“The VNP (vaporized nicotine product) bill is a step in the right direction. With this law, the Philippines will join the ranks of the UK, New Zealand and other countries that have included tobacco harm reduction (THR) as part of their state policy.
As like the above-mentioned countries, the VPN bill is expected to accelerate the decline in smoking prevalence in the Philippines, too,” Dr. Riccardo Polosa, professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Catania (Italy) and honorary professor of Medicine at the University of Southampton (United Kingdom), said in a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.
Clive Bates, Director at Counterfactual Consulting Limited in Abuja, Nigeria and London shares Dr. Polosa’s opinion, saying that “vaporized nicotine is much lower risk to health than cigarette smoking ”and that there is little direct evidence of harm to health arising from nicotine vaping or HTPs.
Manila Bulletin – 2022-01-11.
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