A few months after President Rodrigo Duterte abruptly declared a ban on e-cigarettes, the chief executive has finally signed an order formally prohibiting vaping in public places.
Executive Order (EO) No. 106, signed by Duterte on Wednesday but made public only today, prohibits the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. It also requires vapes and their components, including liquids and refills, to be registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The EO is also an expansion of the 2017 nationwide smoking ban. Similar to the ban on traditional cigarettes, vaping is prohibited within enclosed public places and transports except in designated smoking or vaping areas.
Vape manufacturers, distributors, and sellers meanwhile are ordered to secure a license to operate from the FDA. They’re also required to mark vape products “with appropriate health warnings,” and list “the actual ingredients” used in the products.
The order, which will take effect 15 days from today, said that there is a need to regulate e-cigarettes and what it calls “other novel tobacco products” to mitigate “the serious and irreversible threat to public health, prevent the initiation of non-smokers and the youth, and minimize health risks to both users and other parties exposed to emissions.”
Read: ‘If you are smoking now, you will be arrested’: Duterte bans vaping, says cigarettes are better
Duterte told reporters three months ago that vapes were “toxic,” and called cigarettes superior to their electronic counterparts. The outburst came after the Health Department announced the country’s first case of vaping-related illness that same week, in which an unidentified 16-year-old girl suffered from a lung condition after smoking e-cigarettes daily for four months.
An enraged Duterte abruptly ordered a ban on e-cigarettes and threatened that anyone caught vaping will be arrested. However, just a day later, police had backtracked on the ban, saying that with the absence of an executive order, e-cigarette smokers would just be warned, and not arrested.
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