The Department of Health (DOH) as of June 2026, the campaign against teenage smoking has shifted into an aggressive "anti-vapedemic" and total nicotine ban movement.

Statistics from the agency showed a critical crisis where 14% of Filipino adolescents aged 13 to 15 (approximately 1 in 7 students) are actively using e-cigarettes, outstripping traditional cigarette use and serving as a gateway to lifelong nicotine addiction.

It said the current status, key initiatives, and policy directions of the DOH campaign include: hardline policy shift demanding a total vape ban; legislative push moving away from mere regulation, the DOH formally proposed a total ban on all vapes, heated tobacco products (HTPs), and novel nicotine products (like pouches) in Senate health committee hearings.

On the other hand, DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa is actively lobbying to raise the minimum legal purchasing age from 18 to 25 years old and exponentially increase sin taxes to make nicotine products financially inaccessible to minors.

The campaign of the health department is heavily targeting vape manufacturers for deliberately enticing teenagers through colorful, cartoon-themed packaging and sweet e-liquid flavors.

There is also the grassroots and school-based interventions in which the DOH launched a youth-centered health literacy campaign, partnering with student-led groups like the Anti-Vape and Anti-Tobacco Student Council at Eusebio High School in Pasig City to drive peer-to-peer prevention, recently.

Also, the DOH, in tandem with the Department of Education (DepEd), has pushed for absolute bans on vape devices inside school premises and heavily polices vendors operating near school zones.

The DOH has formally engaged the Philippine National Police (PNP) to strictly crack down on retail stores and online merchants illegally selling tobacco and e-cigarettes to minors.

It is also working alongside the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), thousands of non-compliant, illicit, and youth-targeted vape products are being actively seized and destroyed in disposal facilities.

To counter the misconception that vaping is a "safer alternative," the DOH campaign has brought national attention to severe health consequences, highlighting the country's first recorded EVALI-related death of an athletic 22-year-old Filipino who began vaping at an early age.

The department issued advises that both smoking and vaping carry severe health risks, including nicotine addiction and EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury) tobacco and vape still kill.