LEGAZPI CITY, Feb 20 – The city government here has expressed
support to the passing into law of a bill recently filed in the House of
Representatives providing for the printing of graphic health warnings
on cigarette packs and other tobacco products.
“The City Government of Legazpi fully supports this noble measure
that runs with its tobacco-free locality campaign under Ordinance No.
007-2009, otherwise known as the Revised Smoke-Free Ordinance of Legazpi
City, that serves as an expression of its deep concern for public
health,” City mayor Geraldine Rosal over the weekend said.
In its 2011 global tobacco epidemic report, Rosal said the World
Health Organization (WHO) stressed that large, graphic health warnings
on cigarette packs are proven to motivate people to stop using tobacco
and to reduce the appeal for people who are not yet addicted to it.
But in the Philippines, the Department of Health’s (DOH) move to
require graphic health warnings on cigarette packs has been met with
opposition by the tobacco industry, which sought to block the
implementation of the DOH administrative order (AO) issued in May 2010.
Several tobacco companies questioned the administrative order before
lower courts and a preliminary injunction was issued against the
printing of graphic warnings on cigarette packs.
“That court decision which ignored the fact that the Philippines had
been a signatory since 2005 to an international treaty under the WHO’s
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) drove us into mounting
large billboards bearing the graphic health warnings on strategic places
around the city like parks, terminals, parking lots and major
thoroughfares,” Rosal said.
These graphic billboards that carry with it scary images on effects
of smoking to human body at least serve the DOH’ purpose and proving to
be effective as the warning is delivered not only to smokers so that
they give up the vice but also to would-be smokers so that are dissuaded
from indulging before they get hooked on it, she said.
“We in the city government are fully aware of the hazards being posed
by cigarettes not only to smokers but more among non-smokers who are
exposed to its fumes, that is why we are, by all legal means forbidding
smoking, at least in public places like mass conveyances, school
campuses, parks, churches and government offices, among others,” the
lady mayor said.
Authored by Rep. Marcelino Teodoro of the first district of Marikina
City, House Bill 5667 said there is a need to install picture-based
health warnings as text warnings are not as effective and sufficient in
terms of encouraging smokers to quit the habit.
Teodoro said the bill seeks to require all cigarette packages and
other tobacco product packages, found in the market, to bear highly
visible full-color graphic health warnings.
Teodoro said pictorial health warnings on tobacco products are
already implemented in 15 countries as part of the requirement found in
Article 11 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an
international treaty initiated by the World Health Assembly.
"The Philippines, as a party to the FCTC, is obliged to comply with
certain standards including the implementation of effective measures on
packaging and labeling of tobacco products such as the adoption of a
picture-based health warning on tobacco packages," said Teodoro.
The bill provides that the graphic health warnings shall have two
components – a photographic picture warning and an accompanying textual
warning that is related to the picture.
Furthermore, the measure provides that the graphic health warnings
shall be printed on at least 60 percent of the principal display
surfaces of any tobacco package, occupy no less than 60 percent of the
front and 60 percent of the back panel of the packaging and that it
shall be located at the upper portions of the principal display areas.
The bill also calls for a minimum of eight variations of graphic
health warnings which shall be printed simultaneously and rotated
periodically, so that at any time within the 12-month period, when a set
of graphic warnings are scheduled to be rotated, the variations of the
warnings shall appear in the market with proportionate frequency.
Under the bill, each batch of non-compliant tobacco packages,
regardless of size, that are withdrawn from the manufacturing facility,
imported into the Philippines for sale to the market, transferred to
other facilities or delivered to the retail establishments after the
compliance date shall constitute one offense.
Teodoro said the passage of the bill will help strengthen the role of
the Department of Health (DOH) in promoting the right to health and
instilling consciousness among Filipinos.
“Warning labels motivate smokers to quit and discourage non-smokers
from starting, are well accepted by the public, and can be effectively
implemented at virtually no cost to governments,” he added.
Some 57.5 percent of the male population in the Philippines are
smokers while 12.3 percent of the women are smokers, according to the
World Health Organization.
Some 87,000 Filipinos die from tobacco-related diseases such as lung
cancer, acute respiratory illness, stroke and heart attack every year.
Rosal said she has requested the local legislative council to pass a
resolution formalizing the city government’s expression of support to
the Teodoro Bill. (PNA)
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