The pandemic left small-scale farmers like her hanging by a thread to secure adequate funds for their farms, sustain the country’s agricultural production, and deal with financial shocks that affected their livelihood. Two of her fellow farmers contracted COVID-19 last year.
Despite more than half a century’s worth of evidence detailing tobacco’s deadly health consequences, the tobacco industry still lures millions of people worldwide and remains deeply entrenched in society, thanks to a strong political lobbying and well-funded marketing to interfere with public health campaigns.
Between tobacco tax and public health, the government's choice is clear — money.
Tumaas ang tensyon sa pagitan ng Department of Health (DOH) at ng Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) sa ikasiyam na sesyon ng Conference of the Parties (COP) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Hindi nagkasundo ang dalawang ahensya ng gobyerno sa mga pangunahing isyu na kinasasangkutan ng novel tobacco products.
Tensions ran high between the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) during the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The two government agencies did not see eye to eye on key issues involving novel tobacco products.
As one of the 10 co-heads of the Philippine delegation in the ongoing virtual Conference of the Parties 9 (COP9) of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in Geneva, Switzerland, Locsin described tobacco use as useful and beneficial because “taxes on a vice are called salutary.”
Halos 15 buwan matapos ipagbawal ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang "paggamit, pagbebenta o pagbili ng mga e-cigarette at mga produktong tabako" sa mga wala pang 21 taong gulang, inaprubahan ng House of Representatives ang isang panukalang batas na nagpapababa sa 18 ang minimum na edad ng mga makabibili ng heated tobacco products (HTPs) at electronic nicotine/non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDs/ENNDS).
Barely 15 months after President Rodrigo Duterte banned “the use, sale or purchase of e-cigarettes and tobacco products” to persons below 21 years old, the House of Representatives approved a bill lowering to 18 the minimum age of persons who can buy heated tobacco products (HTPs) and electronic nicotine/non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDs/ENNDS).
I distinctly remember my first time smoking a cigarette.
The consumption of electronic cigarettes or vapes is an emerging epidemic, especially among the youth, according to a leading pulmonologist who says novel tobacco products are no less dangerous than traditional cigarettes.
