A day to encourage youth to speak out against Big Tobacco is Wednesday and it’s called Kick Butts Day.

Sarah Smith with Prelude Behavioral Services explains the national day, “So it’s a day that empowers youth to speak out against Big Tobacco and their practices. So it’s really to raise awareness about tobacco and nicotine use in the community and to reject the industry’s deceptive marketing tactics.” She shares some of the trends regarding nicotine use in teenagers in Washington County, “One thing we see is the change from trying traditional cigarettes to trying e-cigarettes, or other people call them vape, vape pens or vape products. And so, what we see is that with 11th graders in Washington County about 27% of kids have tried e-cigarettes at least once and only 11% have ever smoked a cigarette.” Smith adds that many of the vapor products are owned by Big Tobacco companies, and their marketing tactics are similar to those that were used for traditional tobacco products previously.

She explains that the long term effects of e-cigarettes are not yet known, but it has been shown that some have heavy metals in the vapor and you can be exposed to secondhand nicotine. For more information listen to the Washington Page with Smith on Kick Butts Day this Wednesday.