Providing safer alternatives more likely to reduce smoking - experts

Health experts believe that providing smokers less harmful alternatives will be more effective in reducing smoking than the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommendations prohibiting them while cigarettes remain available.

"To remain at the forefront of adopting effective strategies to reduce smoking, countries that have experience regulating these new products, including the Philippines, must continue to advocate at the global stage for science to guide policy response, not vice versa," Dr. Lorenzo Mata, president of Quit For Good, a non-profit organization promoting harm reduction, said.