CRACKING DOWN ON SALE OF VAPES TO MINORS

MAKIE A. MIGUEL

Guidelines are now being crafted to crack down on the illegal sale of vape products to minors. The Department of Health has sought the assistance of the Philippine National Police to ensure that minors will have no access to ecigarettes amid the increase in the use of e-cigarettes and vapes among the Filipino youth. The PNP has tasked the Directorate for Operations (DO) to formulate operational guidelines that would emphasize protecting the minors, including the arrest of the sellers. According to the PNP, the provision of the law is clear; the protection of the minors is the intention of the law. What the PNP wants to come out with is for uniformity of the implementation. That will be the output of our DO, but the real intention is the spirit of the law, the PNP said. They will also be having a community awareness program, making sure that this would be an opportunity to inform the public of the bad effects of vaping. The DOH has also asked the PNP to ensure that the specific provision of the Republic Act (RA) 11900 relating to the prohibition of selling vapes to people below 18 years old is strictly implemented. RA 11900, which was enacted into law in 2022, was aimed at regulating the importation, sale, packaging, distribution, use, and communication of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products and novel tobacco products. This includes electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. While the law is specific in connection with the prohibition of the sale to minors, teenagers, some of them wearing school uniforms, are using vapes even inside the malls. These minors are getting sick because they can buy vape and they have been doing this for months. So, the PNP was asked to help implement what is written in the law because the DOH has no enforcement power. According to the 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, about 11 percent of students nationwide use tobacco, 10 percent smoke cigarettes, and 14 percent use e-cigarettes. In 2021, data from the Philippine Pediatric Society showed that 11 percent of students ages 10 to 15 years old already tried vapes. Online accessibility (32 percent), varied flavors (22 percent), and the belief that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco (17 percent) are the top three reasons for the use of vapes among the age group.

-oOoThe author is a Teacher II at Baruya Elementary School, Lubao West