Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday signed into law a tobacco regulatory act that imposes an absolute smoking ban in public places and stops tobacco advertisements by July 2008.
The Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 also prohibits the sale and advertisements of tobacco products ”within 100m from the perimeter of any education institution” and other areas frequented by the youth.
Under the law, tobacco advertisements will be phased out starting January 1 2007, and totally banned in mass media effective July 1 2008.
Senator Juan Flavier, the main proponent of the law, said another key point of the act requires companies to ”print health warnings on the front panel of all packages of tobacco products” otherwise the goods will be confiscated.
”We want the warning on the front panel so that people can immediately see it,” he said. ”Microscopic warnings are no longer enough.”
Flavier, a former health secretary, said the absolute smoking ban will be imposed in all public places, including bars and restaurants which have in the past only assigned a smoking area in their establishments.
”We are just being fooled by these partitions,” he said. ”If an establishment wants to allow smoking, it has to build a separate room where only smokers can kill each other.”
He added smokers also ”can kill themselves” in the privacy of their homes, cars and offices.
Sale of tobacco products to minors was also prohibited by the law, which imposes imprisonment of up to three years and fines of up to 400 000 pesos ($7 500 dollars) to violators.
The World Health Organisation has warned that more and more youths were taking up smoking in the Philippines. Its statistics show more than half of Filipino children aged seven to 17 now smoke — a 150% increase since 1987. – Sapa-DPA