FDA calls for vape promo ban

A TOTAL BAN on vape and tobacco advertisement should be considered due to its pervasiveness on digital platforms, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Wednesday in a bid to tighten regulation.

FDA Director Ana Trinidad F. Rivera said banning the advertising promotions of vape and other heated tobacco products (HTPs) across online platforms could help curtail access as seen in other countries.

“These tobacco advertisements and promotions should be banned considering the mechanisms that it is now being advanced through different online platforms and even in the messaging,” Ms. Rivera said during a Senate Committee on Health and Demography hearing on vape regulation.

She noted that the promotions have expanded from online platforms to texting applications where consumers are reminded to repurchase HTPs.

Ms. Rivera further pushed for the promotions ban noting vapes are “nonessential.”

“This is supposed to be, what the industry players are saying, for smoking cessation and if we talk about smoking cessation, there are already clinical practice guidelines that are made available by our practitioners,” she said. Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, who chairs the committee, called for a stricter regulation on vape advertisement, noting lapses in the regulation of the online promotion of said items.

“The direction of the committee is clear. The safeguards are inadequate and the online regulation has loopholes,” Ms. Hontiveros said. “If these products are more easily accessed than controlled then there is something wrong with the system.”

In March, the Department of Health also pushed for a total ban on vape products due to shortfalls in regulation that still allow minors to buy nicotine products. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel