There are good reasons Congress has chosen to delegate broad regulatory powers to agencies. The need to act rapidly is especially important in a health emergency. — Lawrence O. Gostin, Jeffrey E. Harris and Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Washington Post

When our lawmakers approved the measure, they were not only performing a constitutional duty; they were meeting an ethical/moral obligation and conforming with internationally accepted health benchmarks.

The State is mandated by the Constitution to “promote the general welfare” at all times while public health, safety, and security are general policies of sovereign governments.

Adherence to global minimum health and safety protocols, meanwhile, is in step with keeping domestic human development to levels at par with those attained by more developed countries.

We, as citizens, do not deserve anything less. After all, health is a universal human right.

Therefore, no one should be denied access to health information, products, and services.

Quite thankfully, this much was not lost on our very discerning lawmakers.

And the collective and shared wisdom of international experts have been instrumental in letting them craft an enlightened piece of socio-economic legislation.

Thus, the approval of the so-called Vape bill by the Senate and the House of Representatives would enable the country to join the ranks of progressive nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand which are seeing sharp declines in smoking prevalence, according to two international experts on tobacco harm reduction said

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 the Vaporized Nicotine Products bill, which is set for signing into law by President Duterte, is a step in the right direction to address the smoking problem.

“With this law, the Philippines will join the ranks of the UK, New Zealand, and other countries that have included tobacco-harm reduction 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,” Polosa said in a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

Clive Bates, director at Counterfactual Consulting Ltd. in Abuja, Nigeria and London, agreed, 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 heated tobacco products.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved Bill 2239—its version of the VNP measure — on final reading on December 16 while the House of Representatives approved much earlier its own version — Bill 9007 also on final reading on May 25, 2021.

Both bills aim to regulate the manufacture, sale, and use of electronic cigarettes and HTPs which, according to scientific studies, are less harmful than combustible cigarettes.

Polosa visited the Philippines in 2016 and testified during a public hearing of the House. He also talked about THR to academicians, doctors, and policymakers.

In his visit, he highlighted the need for risk-proportionate regulation for much less harmful nicotine delivery products such as e-cigs and HTPs.

Polosa, who established the Centre for Tobacco Prevention and Dependence Treatment at the University of Catania and the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction at the University of Catania, expressed his full support for the VNP bill.

“We applaud and thank Filipino policymakers for taking the step of risk-proportionate regulation of tobacco and other nicotine products,” he said.

He said harm reduction in the context of tobacco control is a key instrument for disease prevention and is recognized in the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article.

“In our studies on this subject, we found consistent improvements in respiratory symptoms, exercise tolerance, quality of life, and rate of disease exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases who abstained from smoking or substantially reduced their cigarette consumption by switching to e-cigarettes,” he noted.

Citing a review of biomarker studies in 2018 by Public Health England, Bates said: “Vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking and switching completely from smoking to vaping conveys substantial health benefits over continued smoking.”

He also noted that there is no credible evidence to support a “gateway effect” or vapor products/ HTPs triggering smoking among adolescents that would not otherwise happen.

Polosa even cited the fact that the US Food and Drug Administration authorized both e-cigs and HTPs as “appropriate for the protection of public health”.

He noted that 15 past presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco agreed that “vaping is likely substantially less dangerous than smoking” and that “the totality of the evidence indicates that frequent vaping increases adult smoking cessation”.

They concluded that, “while evidence suggests that vaping is currently increasing smoking cessation, the impact could be much larger if the public health community paid serious attention to vaping’s potential to help adult smokers, smokers received accurate information about the relative risks of vaping and smoking, and policies were designed with the potential effects on smokers in mind”.

Polosa said while some have raised concerns about the impact of these products on the youth, “this is precisely the reason why these products need to be regulated—to maximize the opportunity for adult smokers to move away from combustible tobacco use and to minimize the risks to youth.” he said.

The VNP bill has strong provisions to protect minors from accessing and consuming the devices: It bans the sale to and use by minors, and the sale, advertising and promotion of vape products within 100 meters of school perimeter and playground. Use of flavor descriptors that unduly appeal to minors in vape products and the display of vape products immediately next to products of particular interest to minors are prohibited.

“This is a proud day for public health in the Philippines! Congratulations!” Dr. Polosa said.

About a million former Filipino smokers have already switched to e-cigs and HTPs, but 17 million still use conventional or traditional cigarettes.

Migration to a less injurious patch may be painstakingly low, but it is happening and generally hoped to be irreversible.

Behold God’s glory and seek His mercy.

Pause, ponder, act, and pray. people.