FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Health group joins Duterte, Dominguez in calling for a ban on e-cig flavors (October 14, 2019 - Manila, Philippines) HealthJustice Philippines, a public health think tank and advocacy group, supports President Rodrigo Duterte and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III in pushing for a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. “We join President Duterte and Finance Secretary Dominguez in calling for a ban on e-cig flavors. It has been proven through research and experience that putting flavors on addictive products such as tobacco make them particularly attractive to children and young adults,” said Mary Ann Fernandez Mendoza, President of HealthJustice. Last Tuesday, Oct. 8, Dominguez told reporters on the sidelines of The Asset’s 14th Philippine Forum what Duterte told him: “When the regulation comes out, he wants to make sure that e-cigarettes taste only like tobacco and nothing else.” “I agree with him 100 percent. [E-cig flavors are] a way of hooking people, and addiction is no good,” Dominguez expressed. Dominguez mentioned that the ban on flavors of heated tobacco products and vapes may form part of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the bill that is still pending in the Senate. “I’m sure it can be included by the regulatory bodies which are the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI),” he stated. Studies show that the youth were more likely to use fruit flavored e-cigarettes. Not only are these flavors attracting youth to use e-cigarettes, studies also reveal that they pose health harm to its users. In the US, the declaration of the US FDA that there is an epidemic on the use of e- cigarettes among the youth has prompted many States to ban flavorants of the said product. “Given the development abroad, the government must not wait for a Filipino young adult or child to get sick due to e-cigarettes. Our authorities need to ban flavored e- cigarettes immediately.” Fernandez Mendoza added. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an e-cigarette is a device that “[does] not burn or use tobacco leaves but instead vaporise a solution the user then inhales.” “The main constituents of the solution, in addition to nicotine when nicotine is present, are propylene glycol, with or without glycerol and flavoring agents. ENDS solutions and emissions contain other chemicals, some of them considered to be toxicants,” WHO elaborated. xx HealthJustice is a Bloomberg Awardee for Global Tobacco Control. .