<p>Just hours after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he would ban e-cigarette use, police were ordered on Wednesday to begin arresting people caught vaping in public and to confiscate the devices.</p>.<p>The abrupt prohibition, revealed by Duterte late Tuesday, adds to a growing global backlash against a product once promoted as less harmful than smoking.</p>.<p>Duterte called the devices "toxic" and said vaping introduced "chemicals" into the user's body.</p>.<p>He then threatened to arrest anyone vaping publicly in a country that already has some of Asia's toughest anti-smoking rules.</p>.<p>The president, a former smoker, is notorious internationally for his deadly anti-narcotics crackdown, but he has also targeted tobacco with a wide-ranging ban on smoking in public.</p>.<p>Citing "the order of the president", the head of the Philippine police ordered "effective today, all police units nationwide to enforce the ban on use of vapes; ensure that all violators will be arrested," according to a statement.</p>.<p>Duterte's order came days after Philippine health authorities reported the nation's first vaping-related lung injury, which resulted in a 16-year-old girl being hospitalised.</p>.<p>About 24 per cent of Filipinos were tobacco users according to a 2015 World Health Organisation study, the most recent available.</p>.<p>E-cigarettes do not "burn" but instead heat up a liquid -- tasting of anything from bourbon to bubble gum, and which usually contains nicotine -- that turns into vapour and is inhaled.</p>.<p>The vapour is missing the estimated 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke but does contain a number of substances that could potentially be harmful.</p>.<p>However, critics say that apart from being harmful in themselves, the flavours of e-cigarette liquids appeal particularly to children and risk getting them addicted to nicotine.</p>.<p>E-cigarettes have become hugely popular in the past decade but a rash of vaping-linked deaths and illnesses in the United States is feeding caution about the product, already banned in some places.</p>.<p>In September 2019 India became the latest country to ban the import, sale, production and advertising of e-cigarettes, citing in particular concerns about its youth.</p>.<p>The devices are already banned in several places such as Brazil, Singapore, Thailand and the US state of Massachusetts.</p>.<p>Before Duterte's presidency, the Philippines already had a ban on tobacco advertising, as well as a law that requires graphic images of smoking health hazards to be printed on cigarette packaging.</p>
<p>Just hours after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he would ban e-cigarette use, police were ordered on Wednesday to begin arresting people caught vaping in public and to confiscate the devices.</p>.<p>The abrupt prohibition, revealed by Duterte late Tuesday, adds to a growing global backlash against a product once promoted as less harmful than smoking.</p>.<p>Duterte called the devices "toxic" and said vaping introduced "chemicals" into the user's body.</p>.<p>He then threatened to arrest anyone vaping publicly in a country that already has some of Asia's toughest anti-smoking rules.</p>.<p>The president, a former smoker, is notorious internationally for his deadly anti-narcotics crackdown, but he has also targeted tobacco with a wide-ranging ban on smoking in public.</p>.<p>Citing "the order of the president", the head of the Philippine police ordered "effective today, all police units nationwide to enforce the ban on use of vapes; ensure that all violators will be arrested," according to a statement.</p>.<p>Duterte's order came days after Philippine health authorities reported the nation's first vaping-related lung injury, which resulted in a 16-year-old girl being hospitalised.</p>.<p>About 24 per cent of Filipinos were tobacco users according to a 2015 World Health Organisation study, the most recent available.</p>.<p>E-cigarettes do not "burn" but instead heat up a liquid -- tasting of anything from bourbon to bubble gum, and which usually contains nicotine -- that turns into vapour and is inhaled.</p>.<p>The vapour is missing the estimated 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke but does contain a number of substances that could potentially be harmful.</p>.<p>However, critics say that apart from being harmful in themselves, the flavours of e-cigarette liquids appeal particularly to children and risk getting them addicted to nicotine.</p>.<p>E-cigarettes have become hugely popular in the past decade but a rash of vaping-linked deaths and illnesses in the United States is feeding caution about the product, already banned in some places.</p>.<p>In September 2019 India became the latest country to ban the import, sale, production and advertising of e-cigarettes, citing in particular concerns about its youth.</p>.<p>The devices are already banned in several places such as Brazil, Singapore, Thailand and the US state of Massachusetts.</p>.<p>Before Duterte's presidency, the Philippines already had a ban on tobacco advertising, as well as a law that requires graphic images of smoking health hazards to be printed on cigarette packaging.</p>