Local Scenario

More than one in every eight Filipino aged 13–15 years old have been found to be puffing
tobacco products, according to the Youth and Tobacco in the Western Pacific Region: Global
Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 2005-2014 report of the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the latest GYTS report of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO), 13.7
percent of those aged 13 to 15 years old in the Philippines are using tobacco products.

This makes the Philippines rank 15th among the highest out of the 22 countries subjected to the
GYTS, said the report.

Leading the pack of having the highest number of youth smokers in the region is Papua New
Guinea with 47.7 percent of their youth using tobacco products.

Rounding out the top 10 are Pacific countries Palau (45.4%); Micronesia (43.3%). Solomon
Islands (40.2%); Kiribati (37.1%); Tuvalu (36.4%); Tonga (35.7%); Cook Islands (35.1%);
Marshall Islands (25.9%); and Vanuatu (25.6%).

According to the GYTS, overall estimates of 8.2 percent of the region’s youth (or 5.3 million
students) are found to be using tobacco products.

“Most smokers start using tobacco at a young age and continue throughout adulthood. As a
consequence, a significant proportion will experience tobacco-related illness and death,” said
WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Dr Shin Young-soo in a statement.

The WHO, then, called on member-states to put more attention in protecting the youth from
tobacco harms.

This, the WHO official said, is especially important since most smokers start using tobacco at a
young age and continue throughout adulthood.

“We must remain vigilant to ensure that the future of our youth won't be marred by tobacco's
deplorable harms. To use the youth as today's tobacco customers is unacceptable," said Shin.

Tobacco use has been proven to result to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory
disease, further resulting in premature disease and death.
The WHO noted how, globally, tobacco claims six million lives each year with 30 percent of all
tobacco-related deaths occurring in the Western Pacific Region. (HDT/Sunnex) 
Reference: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/82944

The Philippine Pediatric Society expressed support to the call of the Department of Finance to
ban vapes in the country as it repeatedly cautioned young people that vaping is dangerous to their
health. The dangers of vape to public health results to increased global actions against the
product. In the US, reports of seizures among vapers are being investigated,” says Dr. Riz
Gonzalez, chairperson of the Philippine Pediatric Society – Tobacco Control Advocacy Group
(PPS-TCAG). “The call of Secretary Dominguez for the ban of e-cigarettes should be heeded by
our legislators. As we speak, a growing number of children are becoming nicotine addicts
because of these e-cigarettes,” Dr. Gonzales added.
 
The latest Global Youth Tobacco Survey shows around 12% of kids aged 13-15 years have
already tried using e-cigarettes. According to Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, Executive Director of
Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), “this data is extremely alarming.” He
added that “if e-cigarettes are not banned, we may suffer a similar epidemic of youth nicotine
addiction that has already happened in the US.”
 
In a statement issued by former United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner
Scott Gottlieb, he said that “the most recent data show more than 3.6 million middle and high
school students across the country were current (within the past 30 days) e-cigarette users in
2018. This is a dramatic increase of 1.5 million students from the previous year.”
 
The Philippine Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is currently crafting an improved
regulation governing the sale of all battery-operated tobacco devices. Health Secretary Francisco
T. Duque III recently said that FDA may come up with the implementing rules and regulations
(IRR) in three-months to six-months. This administrative order to be issued by DFA covers
electronic nicotine delivery system and equally for the electronic non-nicotine delivery system.
“We are reviewing it, and in no time, we will come up with the draft IRR probably in three to six
months’ time,” Duque said.
“The Philippines will not be the first country to ban e-cigarettes,” says Atty. Jacky Sarita,
managing director HealthJustice Philippines. “Around 45 countries have already banned e-
cigarettes, mainly because of its possible negative health impact. Some of these countries are our
neighbors, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.”
 
 
 About HealthJustice Philippines
HealthJustice Philippines is a public health policy think tank, whose technical and legal expertise
in tobacco control and health promotion has led to important and landmark policy reforms in
both national and local levels. It is a Bloomberg Awardee for Global Tobacco Control for its
work on reducing the burden of the tobacco epidemic in the Philippines. It is also the Philippine
program partner of the global NCD Alliance and was recently accredited CSO consultative status
for the United Nations High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases.

http://www.healthjustice.ph/?p=2487
The chances are high that Filipino children, with ages between 11 to 16, have already tried
smoking cigarettes. 

The probability that a child has already lighted his first stick – or worse, is a full-blown smoker –
is even greater when members of his family are smoking, too. And then, of course, there is peer
pressure. 

A Youth Tobacco Survey by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), Philippine
Chapter, among grade school and high school students in Metro Manila has reinforced what
many people have been thinking all along about youth and smoking. 

The survey of 2,932 respondents with an average age of 13, from twelve elementary and
secondary private and public schools in Metro Manila, was conducted by the ACCP after a series
of "tobacco or health workshops" in these schools from 1998 to 2001. 

The ACCP survey results approximate the findings of an early study made by the health
department last June on the same issue as selected secondary schools nationwide, said Dr.
Antonio Lopez, an undersecretary at the Department of Health (DOH), one of the panel reactors. 

The ACCP survey was presented last Aug. 4 at a forum in Mandaluyong City. Although the
audience, composed mostly of parents and medical doctors, appeared troubled by the
information, they did not seem surprised by the results. They had heard it all before. 

The Youth Tobacco Survey showed that cigarette smoking is "high, and use of other tobacco
products is moderately high." 

According to the study, majority of the students surveyed started smoking in their early teens. A
third of the respondents (29.6 percent) aged 10 to 20 admitted that they have tried smoking. Of
these respondents, 18.8 percent are current smokers, with 4.7 percent smoking at least one stick
of cigarette per day. Of the current smokers, 62.7 percent are in private schools. 

The survey also revealed that the social environment plays a role in the smoking behavior of
young people. Peer influence is the primary reason for trying out smoking, and also for going
back to smoking after quitting. 

There are more family members who smoke in the homes of students who are current smokers. 

Dr. Merci Gappi, ACCP member who presented the results, said that one respondent indicated he
first smoked at aged four. However, it was found out that he was forced by his uncle to smoke
while his parents were not home. 

According to Lopez, the DOH survey found that an estimated 42 percent of students have tried
smoking cigarettes, with 15 percent admitting to have smoked their first stick before reaching the
age of 10. Twenty-two percent, practically the same as the ACCP survey’s 18.8 percent, admitted
to being current smokers. 

The DOH also found that tobacco exposure in the environment is very high, with over half (60
percent) of parents of the respondents smoking at home. The importance of peer influence also
came up, as three out of four students (75 percent) reported that their friends smoke in their
presence. 

The usual places where the kids smoke are in their own homes, in their friends’ homes, and in
schools, Lopez said. 

Although both surveys, specifically the ACCP study, indicated "peer influence" as the main
culprit of youth smoking, some in the audience, and even the organizers believed that the
underlying reason behind it is the extensive advertising campaigns directed at young people
mounted by the tobacco companies. 

Dr. Daniel Tan, a member of the Tobacco Free Phils., a lobby group in Congress, said that the
strategy being used by the tobacco industry is precisely to reinforce the belief that peer pressure
— not advertising – is the cause of smoking among the youth. 

He warned the audience, "Let us not fall into that trap." 

Lopez said that, as far as the health department’s tobacco control intervention campaign is
concerned, "a total ban on cigarette advertising is recommended." The audience applauded. 

He also strongly recommended increasing the unit price of tobacco products to reduce both the
initiation and consumption of tobacco by teenagers. Besides an increase in the price of cigarettes,
and community and school-based education programs, Lopez also recommended "mass media
education campaigns featuring long-term, high-intensity counter-advertising" to reduce tobacco
use initiation. 

However, the key still lies in convincing the legislators to enact enforceable laws banning
cigarette ads and increasing tobacco prices. But, as Tan pointed out, the anti-smoking lobby has
not had much success in the past. 

Dr. Abundio Balgos, a member of the ACCP, observed that tobacco companies have come up
with "a lot of resistance and efforts" to "bar the promulgation of [tobacco control] laws,"
asserting that these companies have put in a lot of money in the effort. 

No support from government 

Another reason why the anti-smoking campaign has come to naught is the perspective taken by
some high government officials that tobacco companies provide employment and other economic
benefits for Filipino workers. 

Even the health department’s Tobacco Control Secretary (TCS) has not scored in its anti-
smoking campaigns. According to Dr. Marina Baquilod of the TCS secretariat, the health
department has already provided lawmakers the "evidence" to back a "comprehensive anti-
smoking bill." However, Congress has still to act on it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.philstar.com/metro/2001/09/04/132498/latest-survey-says-
more-filipino-teenagers-are-smo/amp/