170 delegates attend 8th Asia Pacific Smoke-Free Meeting
Around 170 foreign and local delegates from countries in the Asia Pacific Region converged in the city for the 8th Asia Pacific Smoke-Free Meeting of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) held Oct. 27-28, 2022 at the Baguio Country Club.
Participants were mostly governors, city and municipal mayors, smoke-free focal persons, tobacco control advocates and representatives of civil society organizations.
Organized by the city government, the Dept. of Health, World Health Organization in the Western Pacific Region and the SEATCA, the regional meeting had the theme, “Rising amidst the Challenges: Strengthening and Sustaining Smoke-Free Implementation.”
It aimed to share best practices on smoke-free implementation and enforcement as part of comprehensive tobacco control and health promotion and teach the importance and the process of preparing an effective smoke-free enforcement mechanism and identify and respond to challenges in implementing policies and sustaining the smoke-free campaign with the emergence of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heated tobacco products (HTPs) and others.
It was the city’s first time to host said event which was held in Davao City in 2013, Balanga City in 2014 and Iloilo City in 2015.
Dignitaries who graced the first day included League of Provinces President Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., WHO-WPRO Tobacco-Free Initiative Coordinator Ms Xi Yin, Senior Officials Meeting for Health and Development Chair Lao PDR, SEATCA Executive Director Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo and SEATCA Smoke-free Program Manager Dr. Domilyn Villarreiz.
DOH OIC Secretary Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire served as the keynote speaker.
First day topics were Updates on Tobacco Control/ Smoke-free by the WHO WPRO; Updates: Smoke-free Cities Asia Pacific Network (SCAN) and Smoke-free Heritage sites and cities Alliance (SHA) by Dr. Villarreiz; Feature Presentation: Modern Innovations in Implementing and Enforcing Smoke-free Laws by Mayor Magalong.
The first session was conducted on the topics “Enforcement Infrastructure and Strategies: How Smoke-Free Laws are Enforced in Different Countries/Cities” which will feature the programs of Balanga, Bataan, Lao PDR, M’lang, Cotabato and Cambodia.
Session 2 delved on “Ensuring Public Compliance: Learning from Anti-Smoking Task Forces” and featured presentations by Penang, Malaysia and Iloilo City.
Session 3 on “Sustaining Smoke-free Enforcement” will tackle sustaining political commitment and community involvement for smoke-free enforcement followed by a special session on the topic “Are e-cigarettes saving smokers or creating new addicts?” will feature presentations on “Debunking the myths on ENDS/HTPs,” “Regulate by prohibiting or restricting ENDS: pitfalls of the Philippine ENDS law,” and “Enforcement on the online sales of ENDS.”
Session 4 on “Responding to Challenges to undermine SF Policies” will feature PMI’s “smoke-free cities,” international perspectives and the Malaysia experience.
Session 5 on “Summit of Smoke-free Leaders: The Future of Smoke-free in the ASEAN region” will focus on Baguio City, Kelantan, Malaysia, Xieng Khouang, Lao PDR, Shan, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
Workshops and planning of next steps for each country were conducted and presentation of the outputs capped the event. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
