MANILA, Philippines — The Food and Drug Ad­ministration (FDA) has is­sued a “gentle reminder” to all physicians connected with public hospitals not to have any form of interaction with the tobacco and electronic cigarette industries.

The FDA issued an advi­sory under acting director general Eric Domingo that said doctors of state hospitals should avoid all interaction with the industry in compli­ance with Joint Memorandum Circular 2910-01 issued by the Department of Health and Civil Service Commission.

The advisory notifies hos­pital heads and urges them to avoid all interaction with the tobacco/e-cigarette in­dustry on reports that these companies are currently en­gaging physicians from both the public and private sector.

This is part of an attempt to recruit them in disinformation campaigns that promote elec­tronic cigarettes use as viable harm reduction options, the FDA said.

Domingo revealed JUUL, a company manufacturing electronic cigarettes, has been organizing symposiums and inviting doctors.

“Please understand that e-cigarettes (electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems, heated tobacco prod­ucts, and hybridizations and modifications thereof) have been proven to introduce new risks above and over those already present in traditional combustible cigarettes,” the advisory stated.

Domingo added that both reduced exposure and re­duced risk claims in favor of e-cigarettes have been de­bunked, leading to a call from the American Medical Asso­ciation to ban these products until approved and regulated by the United States FDA.

Domingo warned these products have been demon­strated to be gateway options for subsequent tobacco and illicit drug use, “especially for the youth, blunting any purported public health ben­efit from e-cigarette imple­mentations compliant with the relevant public health standards.”

Under the joint memoran­dum circular, all physicians, especially in the rank of medi­cal officer, medical special­ist and scientist, shall deny requests to engage with the tobacco industry.

The circular stated that such engagements are “inimi­cal to the concord of medicine and public health and reflect poorly on our commitment to protect the Filipino people from harm.”