Declares Florida Youth Are “Not A Lab Rat!”
Sarasota, Fla. – Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) in Sarasota County is standing up to the electronic cigarette industry for the 24th annual Kick Butts Day on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. This national day of activism, sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, encourages youth to raise awareness of the problem of tobacco use in their community and urge elected officials to take action to protect kids from tobacco. SWAT’s theme this year is “Not A Lab Rat!” empowering Florida youth to declare they are not part of a ‘social experiment’ for the addiction and harms of e-cigarettes. While e-cigarette companies continue to deny marketing their addictive products to young people, the fact is that one in four Florida youth (ages 11-17) tried e-cigarettes in 2018,(1) and nearly one in four Florida high school students reported current use in 2018 – an astounding 58 percent increase compared to 2017