The Vape Law in the Philippines has established a vital legal and ethical foundation for tobacco harm reduction, enabling healthcare professionals to guide patients, particularly those unable to quit combustible cigarettes, toward less harmful alternatives.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Andy Fernandez underscored this development at the 8th Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction 2025, hosted by the International Association on Smoking Control and Harm Reduction (SCOHRE).
Tobacco harm reduction refers to the use of significantly less harmful alternatives to traditional cigarettes, including vapes, heated tobacco products, and nicotine pouches. Research indicates these options pose fewer health risks because they eliminate combustion and smoke, the primary sources of toxic chemicals in cigarette use.
According to Fernandez, since the enactment of the Vape Law in 2022, medical professionals in the Philippines, especially oral and maxillofacial surgeons, have gained greater confidence in advocating harm reduction as a viable approach to reducing cigarette use.
“Since the Vape Law was passed in 2022, we’ve felt more empowered to carry out our advocacy across communities. The tobacco harm reduction strategy is now more effective for us because we have a legal framework to support it,” he said.
The Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP) emphasized the importance of safeguarding the Vape Law to preserve the public health progress achieved through harm reduction strategies.
“We must protect the Vape Law against renewed efforts that threaten to weaken harm reduction in the Philippines,” said NCUP president Anton Israel.
Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of consumer advocacy group Quit for Good, criticized efforts by certain groups to vilify nicotine, emphasizing that the real health threat lies in cigarette smoke. “Outdated prohibitions on safer alternatives endanger millions of nicotine-dependent Filipinos by keeping them tied to combustible tobacco,” Mata said.
Fernandez noted that the Vape Law’s embrace of harm reduction marks a meaningful advancement for medical fields such as oral and maxillofacial surgery, which have long prioritized early detection of oral cancer.
While quitting smoking remains the gold standard, Fernandez noted that surgeons are no longer limited to passively observing patients struggle to quit smoking. Thanks to the Vape Law, they can now confidently recommend less harmful alternatives, he said.
“During my presidency at the Philippine College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons in 2011, we actively promoted early detection of oral cancer and trained dental practitioners to recognize its early signs. Now, with the Vape Law in place, we feel empowered to recommend novel tobacco products to patients as part of harm reduction,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez explained that the Vape Law’s effectiveness lies in its dual function: it offers a robust regulatory framework for both nicotine and non-nicotine vapor products, while also putting in place strong safety measures.
“Lawmakers ensured that the Vape Law fulfills its core purpose: establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, and use of vaporized nicotine, non-nicotine, and novel tobacco products, along with clear penalties for violations,” he said.
The regulatory framework is explicitly structured to prevent access to these products by minors and adolescents. It prohibits sales near educational institutions and restricts purchases to individuals aged 18 and above.
The law prohibits flavor variants such as mango, strawberry and tutti frutti, which studies have shown to be particularly appealing to minors.
Fernandez noted that the law also delivers economic value, with excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol generating surplus funds for the National Health Insurance Program (PhilHealth), which serves all Filipinos, including minors.
Harm reduction efforts in the Philippines reflect a growing international movement championed by organizations such as SCOHRE.
On October 15, SCOHRE urged policymakers and Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) member states to ground their decisions in scientific evidence as they prepare for the Eleventh Conference of the Parties, scheduled for November 17–22, 2025, in Geneva.
Professor Ignatios Ikonomidis, president of SCOHRE, cautioned that the European Union’s proposed approach centered on prohibition, tighter restrictions, and increased taxation of alternative nicotine products could jeopardize both public health outcomes and consumer autonomy.
“When policies lump all nicotine products together as equally dangerous, they risk setting back years of public health gains,” he warned.
SCOHRE’s consensus statement on tobacco harm reduction, adopted in October, reinforces harm reduction as a foundational public health principle complementary to both prevention and cessation. It also advocates for balanced regulation and transparent communication of relative product risks.
