The vaping regulation bill passed by the Philippine legislature in January has become law. The legislation makes the Philippines one of the very few Asian countries with reasonable vaping regulations designed to benefit people who smoke or would smoke when vaping products are not available.

In January, the Philippine Senate overwhelmingly (19-2) passed the Vaporized Nicotine Products Control Act and quickly agreed with a version passed earlier by the House of Representatives. The bill has been the subject of intense debate since then, with significant lobbying by groups both for and against the law.

After the bill was handed over to then-President Rodrigo Duterte on June 24, Philippine newspapers were full of stories about persuading Duterte and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. .) Signing or vetoing the bill.

Presidents have 30 days to sign or veto a bill after receiving it. Neither side took any action, so the bill expired on July 25 and officially became law. It will come into force two weeks after being published in the country's official gazette (which hasn't happened yet).

How will Philippine laws affect nicotine consumers?

The most important aspect of the law is that it legalizes e-cigarettes as a strategy to help smokers reduce or eliminate health risks. More than 16 million Filipino citizens smoke. Giving them a government-approved, regulated alternative could save millions of lives.

Neither the final Senate bill nor the settled version passed by both chambers can be read, making it difficult to pin down the exact details of the bill. The following details are mostly from Philippine news sites and sometimes conflict (at least about taste). When the final law is published, we will make changes to the article as needed.

The law empowers the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to regulate e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, which will develop technical standards for safety and quality in consultation with the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA will maintain authority over products that make health claims, such as nicotine replacement therapy.

The law includes all consumer vaping products, including those that do not contain nicotine.

The law allows online sales and products with nicotine concentrations up to 65 mg/ml (6.5%). It lowered the legal purchase age from 21 to 18, meaning more young people would vape rather than smoke (the age to buy cigarettes is 18).

The new vaping law imposes restrictions on where vaping products can be sold and imposes penalties on stores and online retailers that sell vaping to minors. It also restricts advertising, including the use of social media influencers and celebrities.

According to the Vera Files, while the new law may not ban flavors outright, it will at least ban labels and ads that describe flavors that prove to be particularly appealing to minors. Assuming flavor descriptors, if they contain references to fruits, confectionary brands, desserts, or cartoon characters, they will attract minors.

However, according to some reports, lawmakers backing the bill claim the law would maintain the existing flavor ban and add descriptive language on top of it. An outright flavor ban could prevent legal e-cigarette retailers from effectively competing with black market sellers.

But flavored or not, the Philippines' new vaping laws are a small miracle.

In Southeast Asia, nicotine and tobacco policy is dominated by the prohibitionist ideology promoted by the World Health Organization Bloomberg.

Most of the Philippines' neighbors have passed outright vaping bans, as recommended by the World Health Organization. For vaping advocates in the Philippines, fighting the influence of tobacco control agencies and finally persuading elected officials to enshrine tobacco harm reduction into law is a major achievement.

One month, two presidents, a lobbying spree

Because the Philippine president changed hands in July, not one but two presidents have a chance to pass or veto the vaping bill. As it turns out, neither outgoing Rodrigo Duterte nor incoming Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took any action, and the bill automatically became law. But that month was a lobbying spree, with neither president making a decision.

The e-cigarette bill has faced strong opposition from the Philippine Department of Health as well as many medical and tobacco control organizations. As the new law would remove the Philippine FDA's authority to regulate the vaping industry and hand it over to the DTI, the bill has drawn a hostile response from entrenched public health interests, including regional and international organizations.

The FDA itself lobbied both presidents until the deadline to veto the bill.

The agency had previously angered many members of the legislature when news broke that Bloomberg Philanthropies was trying to influence the FDA's stance on vaping by pouring money into the Philippine public health agency.

The e-cigarette bill has the backing of a number of medical groups who argue that tobacco harm reduction (THR) can help reduce smoking-related illness and death.

It is also backed by the PhilTobacco Growers Association, which represents 50,000 Filipino tobacco growers, and believes that producing nicotine for vaping products could help farmers, The Manila Times reported. In addition to the DTI, the proposed law has the backing of the country's labor, interior and defense ministries.

The question for the future is whether tobacco control and public health groups will give the law a chance to work, or try to poison public opinion against vaping and undermine DTI regulation at every turn.

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