RECOGNIZING the ill effects of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, San Juan City Mayor Guia Gomez has ordered to strengthen the implementation of the city’s antismoking ordinance as she also called for the strict compliance of the Graphic Health Warnings (GHW) Law, or Republic Act 1064.
Gomez also said that the local officials of the Department of Trade and Industry will be vigilant in doing their duties to ensure that manufacturers and retailers are complying with the law which was implemented on November 4.
“We have two local DTIs here (in San Juan) and they will be the one to personally check on those selling cigarettes,” Gomez said stressing that the cigarette packs should show printed physical manifestations of diseases and disorders.
Gomez also mulls on creating a task force that will concentrate on sari-sari stores and street vendors to make sure that they are not also meet the requisites of the law.
The city, she said, has “The Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance of San Juan City,” ordinance that seeks to make unlawful for any person to smoke in a public utility vehicle, government-owned vehicle or any other means of public transport for passengers, accommodation and entertainment establishment, public building, public place, enclosed public place, or in any enclosed area outside of one’s private residence, private place of work, cars owned by the government or duly designated smoking areas, within the jurisdiction of San Juan City.
The law prescribes printing of GHW on fifty percent of the principal display surfaces of any tobacco products and shall occupy fifty percent of the front and fifty percent of the back panel of the tobacco package; and shall be printed in four colors.
Likewise, Health Secretary Jean Paulyn-Ubial cited Administrative Order No. 2014-0037 as a clear basis of the date of implementation as it requires “graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and other tobacco product packages one year after the issuance of the templates by the Department of Health.”
The GHW has proven effective in warning people on the devastating effects of tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke. It also aims to remove misleading or deceptive descriptors like “low tar”, “light”, “ultra lights”or “mild,” which convey that a tobacco product is healthier, less harmful or safer.
Proceeds of administrative fines shall be used for health promotion campaigns on tobacco control of the DOH and the Department of Education.
According to the World Health Organization Bulletin, “taken as a whole, pictorial warnings are more likely to be noticed than text-only warning labels; more effective for educating smokers about the health risks of smoking and for increasing smokers’ thoughts about the health risks; and associated with increased motivation to quit smoking.”
The 2015 Philippine Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) reported one out of 4 or 16.5 million adults currently smoke tobacco: 42 percent of men and 6 percent of women. This was 19 percent lower than the 29 percent smoking prevalence in 2009 as reported by Philippine GATS survey.
“We enjoin everyone to be vigilant and make sure that all tobacco products carry these pictorial warnings and that violators be reported to the respective government agencies. Above all, through these warnings, we want to inform everyone that smoking puts to waste human potentials,” Ubial concluded.