Dentists in the Philippines are encouraging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes.
"If smoking patients do not stop smoking, we will see more dead patients due to oral cancer," Dr Fernando Fernandez told the Manila Times.
Dentists in the Philippines are encouraging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes. It reports The Manila Times newspaper. This follows a statement by the Philippine Dental Association, PCOMS, which is now raising its voice in a heated debate on vaping and tobacco harm reduction in the country.
Such as the Road Column previously reported e-cigarettes have caused a political storm in the Philippines. What started as a total ban on all vaping products, later replaced by tough regulations, has turned into an international corruption scandal. At the centre is the Philippine Department of Public Health, which claims to have received money from US anti-tobacco groups to fund tobacco control in the country.
Dentists: switch to e-cigarettes
The Philippine media has been covering the events continuously and has been heavily criticised, especially the US-based Bloomberg Foundation. The foundation, which funds much of the WHO's work on tobacco policy, has been accused of modern colonialism in its endeavour to ban less harmful alternatives to tobacco smoking.
In the context of a wide-ranging investigation into e-cigarettes and the criticised laws, the Philippines' largest dental association decided to make its position known.
"We try to persuade our patients to stop smoking. If they can't quit otherwise, we advise them to switch to alternative, smoke-free options, such as e-cigarettes, to burn nicotine," said dentist Dr Fernando Fernandez in the Manila Times.
Reducing the risk of oral cancer
According to Dr Fernando Fernandez, smoking causes oral cancer and all dentists should advocate harm reduction to reduce the death rate among smoking patients. The association argues that the recommendation is based on scientific evidence and a broad consensus among health professionals and doctors on harm reduction.
"If smoking patients continue to smoke, we will see more deaths from oral cancer," Dr Fernando Fernandez told the Manila Times.
