Comply with Graphic Health Warnings Law, cigar makers urged

MANILA, Philippines – Cigars or even smokeless tobacco products must carry graphic health warnings too.

The New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) reminded cigar makers and all tobacco manufacturers yesterday to fully comply with the Graphic Health Warnings Law, which would be fully implemented on Nov. 4.

Republic Act 10643 or the Act to Effectively Instill Health Consciousness through Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products covers all tobacco products available in the country, NVAP president Emer Rojas said.

Rojas said the law defined tobacco products as those entirely or partly made of tobacco leaf as raw material, manufactured to be used for smoking, sucking, chewing, snuffing or by any other means of consumption.

“While cigars may not be as popular in the country as cigarettes, its threat to one’s health is equally high and could also lead to similar smoking-related illnesses,” Rojas noted.

Thus, he said, cigar makers must follow the existing GHW Law and put picture-based warnings on the hazardous effects of smoking.

According to Rojas, cigars contain a higher level of nicotine than cigarettes, which is absorbed through the lungs as quickly as it is with cigarettes.    

Studies have shown that cigar smoking, like cigarette smoking, is linked to cancers of the mouth, lips, tongue, throat, larynx, lung, pancreas and bladder cancer as well as gum disease and sexual impotence in men. 

Aside from cigars, other tobacco-based products are bidis, kreteks and smokeless tobaccos (chewable and snuffed). 

The GHW Law provides that all tobacco product packages sold and distributed in the country must have the prescribed picture warnings placed in the lower 50 percent of both sides of the packages.

Last March, the country started implementing the first phase of the law’s implementation, wherein tobacco manufacturers were prohibited from coming out with cigarette packs without picture health warnings.

The law, however, provided an additional eight-month period for tobacco firms and retailers to exhaust old stocks bearing the old text-only warnings.

 Rojas said the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco and the Department of Trade and Industry must strictly do their part in monitoring the compliance of the industry as well as address complaints of violations.

He further urged the public to report non-compliant manufacturers or distributors or sellers of tobacco product packages without GHWs.