The Parents Against Vape (PAV) and the Child Rights Network (CRN), have expressed grave concern over the alarming rise in e-cigarette use among children worldwide as highlighted by the recent World Health Organization (WHO) report.
‘This growing epidemic is not accidental-it is the direct result of the tobacco industry’s aggressive targeting of children and young people to be their replacement smokers and efforts to weaken regulation to make their products more accessible to the general public,’ PAV and CRN stated in a joint statement.
The WHO recently warned the public that out of the 100 million people vaping, at least 15 million are children aged 13 to 15.
It added that in countries that have data, children are 9 times more likely to vape than adults.
The health advocacy groups stressed that tobacco industry distorts the meaning of ‘harm reduction’ to justify selling these products, branding them as ‘less harmful’ or ‘alternatives.’
‘What the industry is doing is not harm reduction but harm promotion.Real harm reduction is not profit-driven. It does not involve flooding the market with new addictive products for both smokers and non-smokers alike. If the industry really promotes harm reduction, it wouldn’t make their products flavored, flashy, and packaged to appeal to the youth,’ they said.
‘Addiction from nicotine and e-cigarette products threatens children’s brain development, mental health, and overall well-being,’ they stressed.
‘Sacrificing their health for corporate profit violates the Philippine government’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to safeguard every child’s right to health, truthful information, and protection from harmful products,’ they said as they urge policymakers, health authorities, schools, and communities to act decisively.
The joint call to action of PAV and CRN include:
Return regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to the Department of Health – Food and Drug Administration (FDA), prioritizing public health over profit.
Restore the minimum age of restriction to 21 years, recognizing the heightened vulnerability of adolescent brains to nicotine addiction.
Ban all flavored vapes and all online promotions and sale, including aggressive influencer and celebrity marketing that highly appeal to children and young people.
Strongly enforce anti-vaping laws and ordinances that prohibit sale, marketing, and use of e-cigarettes by minors.
Implement public education campaigns exposing the misleading narrative of ‘harm reduction’ and the true harms of vaping.
Hold policymakers and industry actors accountable for continuing to place profit above public health.
‘E-cigarettes are just as harmful, if not more harmful, than traditional combustible cigarettes and children should never be consumers of these deadly products. When children vape, the tobacco industry is primarily responsible for it,’ they said urging the public to act now before another generation’s health and dreams become casualties of corporate greed and gaps in policy and implementation.