This ordinance comes after the city’s Anti-Smoking Task Force finds no study has come out that assures such new cigarettes are safe to the public.
By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA
Davao Today
Davao City, Philippines — The city council passed a new ordinance that also prohibits the use of electronic-cigarettes and Shisha (water-pipes).
This ordinance comes after the city’s Anti-Smoking Task Force finds no study has come out that assures such new cigarettes are safe to the public.
The Task Force’s Vice-chair Doctor Domilyn Villareiz explains that “although (e-cigarettes and water-pipes) does not contain nicotine, there is no study yet that assures it’s safe or if there’s no presence of toxic products.”
Villareiz added that allowing the use of e-cigarettes in non-smoking areas would mean tolerating the act of smoking itself.
Villareiz clarified there is no outright banning of these products in the city. “They are only allowed in smoke-regulated areas,” she said.
Indoor smoke-regulated areas are already prohibited, while outdoor ones should have a roofing of over five meters.
Out of the city’s 34,000 establishments, only about 200 have applied for smoking areas.
Villareiz explained that the previous ordinance passed ten years ago “failed to include other tobacco-based products such as the e-cigarettes and the shisha, but the new ordinance does.”
Even as new tobacco-based products will arise within 10 years, this ordinance will cover such prohibition.
Villareiz also doubts that e-cigarettes can serve as a mechanism to stop smoking.
“Only the nicotine gum and nicotine patch has been approved by the World Health Organization to be safe and effective in nicotine-replacement therapy,” she said.
The new ordinance, she said, requires violators to go to a Smoking Cessation Clinic for counseling as one method of helping smokers eventually quit smoking,
“There are smokers who are still not in the state of being addicted and we believe that they can stop through counseling,” she explained.
The ordinance states that first-time offenders will be given citation tickets and be fined with 500 pesos (USD 11.96).
Further violations would incur penalties of 1,000 pesos (USD 23.91) for the first offense; 2,500 pesos (USD 59.78) for the second offense; and 3,000 pesos (USD 71.74) for the third offense which may include imprisonment from one to four months.
The previous ordinance has fined 12,000 individuals in ten years.
The Anti-Smoking Task Force has yet to prepare the new ordinance’s Implementing Rules and Regulations. (John Rizle L. Saligumba/davaotoday.com)
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