The Philippines' Vape Law has provided a crucial legal and ethical framework for tobacco harm reduction, empowering the medical community to recommend novel tobacco products to patients who do not quit smoking combustible cigarettes entirely.

This shift was highlighted by oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Andy Fernandez during the 8th Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction 2025, organized by the International Association on Smoking Control and Harm Reduction (SCOHRE).

Tobacco harm reduction involves the use of less harmful alternatives to cigarettes such as vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches. Scientific studies show that these products are far less harmful than combustible cigarettes because they do not involve combustion and do not produce smoke, which contains toxic chemicals.

Fernandez noted that since the Vape Law's passage in 2022, medical professionals in the Philippines, particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeons, feel more confident actively promoting harm reduction as a strategy to stop cigarette use.

“Since 2022 when this law was passed, we have more courage to do our advocacy to various community, and I think the tobacco harm reduction strategy is very effective to us now, since we have this Vape law,” he said.

The Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP) underscored the need to protect the Vape Law to sustain the public health gains made possible by harm reduction in the Philippines.

“We need to protect the Vape Law from renewed attempts to undermine harm reduction in the Philippines,” NCUP president Anton Israel said.

Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of consumer advocacy group Quit for Good, said several groups were trying to demonize nicotine, when in fact, it is the smoke from cigarettes that is the problem. “The outdated beliefs on prohibition of cigarette alternatives put millions of nicotine-dependent Filipinos at risk by forcing them to stick with harmful cigarettes,” said Mata.

Fernandez said harm reduction, embraced by the Vape Law, is a significant step for specialties like oral and maxillofacial surgery, which have long focused on the early detection of oral cancer.

The gold standard remains to be quitting smoking, and instead of simply observing patients who remain at risk when they fail to quit smoking, surgeons can now "courageously recommend alternatives," Fernandez said.

“In the Philippine College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons when I was president in 2011, we have been advocating the early detection of oral cancer, and we teach the dental practitioners on how to detect early signs and symptoms of oral cancer. And now that we have this Vape law, we have the courage to suggest to the patients to try the novel tobacco products,” he said.

Fernandez said the Vape Law's effectiveness stems from its dual purpose: providing a comprehensive regulatory framework for vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products while establishing strict safety nets.

“The lawmakers made sure that we carry out the real purpose of the law, and that is to provide for a comprehensive regulatory framework covering the importation, manufacturing, sale, packaging, distribution and use of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products and the novel tobacco products and providing for penalties for violation thereof meaning,” he said.

The framework is specifically designed to keep the products out of the hands of minors and adolescents. Sales are prohibited near schools, and only individuals 18 years old and above are legally permitted to purchase the products.

The law also includes flavor restrictions, removing attractive flavors like mango, strawberry, or tutti frutti, which were found to appeal to minors.

Fernandez said the law also has an economic benefit, as the excise tax on tobacco and liquor contributes surplus funds to the National Health Insurance (PhilHealth), which benefits all citizens, including minors.

The push for harm reduction in the Philippines aligns with a broader global appeal from organizations like SCOHRE.

SCOHRE on October 15, 2025 encouraged policymakers and WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) parties to base decisions on scientific evidence as they prepare for the eleventh biennial tobacco control conference.

Professor Ignatios Ikonomidis, president of SCOHRE, warned that the European Union's proposed direction—which emphasizes prohibition, restriction, and heavier taxation of alternative nicotine products—risks undermining public health and consumer choice.

"Policies that treat all nicotine products as equally harmful risk reversing hard-won public health gains," he said.

SCOHRE's consensus statement on tobacco harm reduction, adopted earlier in October, reaffirms harm reduction as a core public health principle, complementary to prevention and cessation and calls for balanced regulation and accurate communication of relative risks to consumers.