The Health department on Wednesday called for prohibiting vaping products, citing the health risks of using electronic cigarettes and other heated tobacco products.
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said the department will support a proposed legislation to ban the use of e-cigarettes, which are being marketed as healthier alternatives for tobacco products.
“If the DOH had its way, we would go for an outright ban,” Domingo told reporters.
Different groups of medical practitioners, including the Philippine College of Chest Physicians and Philippine Academy of Physicians, are pushing for a ban on the sale and use of vaping products due to the health risks associated to their use.
Last week, the Health department asked all public and private hospitals and health professionals to record the history of tobacco and e-cigarette use among patients, especially those with respiratory illnesses, to monitor the prevalence of e-cigarette-related diseases in the country.
All acutely ill patients who have used e-cigarettes in the last 90 days, with other plausible causes for illness, will be recorded as cases of vaping-related disease.
The data that will be gathered from the hospitals will be used for future policy directions for electronic gadgets.
The department banned the use of e-cigarettes in public places through an administrative order signed last June, and tasked local government units to implement it.
