MANILA — An ant-smoking advocacy group on Monday called on the government to ban electronic cigarettes or e-cigs in the country, saying health experts have yet to determine the dangers on the long-time use of such gadgets.
“There is a need to ban e-cigarettes even at the local level until there is sufficient evidence that will prove that they are safe for consumers,” said New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) president Emer Rojas in an interview with the media.
Rojas said that they are making the call while the safety of e-cigs is still being determined by health experts.
“Do we still have to wait for illnesses caused by e-cigarettes to increase as well as the number of those addicted to it before we impose a ban?” Rojas said.
He said that the nicotine content itself of e-cigs makes it addictive so its unregulated sale and use clearly put at risk the lives of millions of Filipinos.
He also cited World Health Organization has already reported that there is insufficient evidence of e-cigs are effective to stop people from quitting smoking.
Rojas also expressed fear over the reported e-cig explosions across the globe, causing injuries to its users and people around them.
He said there have been 243 cases of e-cig explosions as of May 2017 based on the data of ASEAN Tobacco Watch,
“This may also happen to anybody with very serious physical harm effects. But why take that risk? Government, especially local governments must include e-cigarette bans in their smoke-free ordinances to protect the people from this emerging threat of addiction,” Rojas said.