Experts, Asia-Pacific mayors to push anti-tobacco measures

SINGAPORE — International and Filipino experts on tobacco control are concerned over the growing popularity of electronic cigarettes, saying it could undermine efforts to combat smoking.

Experts vowed to scale up the campaign against smoking during the 2nd annual Asia-Pacific Cities Alliance for Tobacco Control (AP-CAT) meeting facilitated by the Asia-Pacific office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and the Indonesian Ministry of Health in Singapore on Sept. 4-5.

The meeting was attended by mayors and health authorities from various countries in the region.

Among the participants were Mayor Francis Anthony Garcia of Balanga, Bataan, who is also the co-chair of AP-CAT; Dipolog Mayor Darel Dexter Uy; Dinalupihan Mayor Maria Angela Garcia and Samal Mayor Generosa dela Cruz.

The participants committed to push and support anti-tobacco strategies to create smoke-free cities, including banning tobacco promotion, advertising and sponsorship; increasing the size of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, raising tobacco taxes and establishing prevention programs on non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

According to Garcia, AP-CAT is concerned over the rising popularity of e-cigarettes because it could lead to addiction to nicotine which can be found in the device.

“AP-CAT is against e-cigarettes. Personally, I think people will be introduced and exposed to nicotine through e-cigarettes. I don’t think e-cigarettes will help you quit. Instead, you will develop the habit of smoking and addiction to tobacco,” he said.

Harmful to health

Ehsan Latif, senior advisor of The Union for NCDs, noted in a separate interview that while there is still no conclusive evidence on whether e-cigarettes are harmful to health, governments should ban them.

“While we wait for these studies that will give us conclusive evidence that e-cigarettes are not harmful, we should be very careful… The experience in tobacco control is whenever you want to add flavors, you are trying to attract the younger market,” Latif added.

Tara Singh Bam, The Union deputy regional director for Asia-Pacific, told The

STAR that e-cigarettes are part of the tobacco industry’s strategies to “sustain their market among the youth and children.”

Bam underscored the need for governments to also focus on this new technology because it is not good for health just like conventional cigarettes.

“The use of e-cigarettes is growing in the ASEAN market as well. We see the rampant advertising, the selling on Facebook, online, all of these things. So those I think are a serious concern,” he said.

Citing data from the World Health Organization, he said that tobacco kills seven million people a year and 50 percent of them are in the Asia-Pacific. Smoking costs the world some $1.4 trillion annually in health care costs.

Bam has debunked the claims of the tobacco industry that e-cigarettes could help a smoker quit using conventional cigarettes.

“Instead, it’s actually going to sustain the addiction in our community. That means there will be more users of the conventional cigarettes as well as e-cigarettes so it’s a serious concern for governments. There should be legislation banning all types of cigarettes,” he said.