The Southeast Utah Health Department is preparing for the national Take Down Tobacco Day on Friday, March 31 which is a campaign for tobacco free kids. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Health Educator, Paige Haeck to have her share some important information.

Part of the Health Educator duties is to visit schools in the Carbon and Emery County areas to share with students information dangers of smoking/vaping. “Recently we went to Emery High School, and we taught Tobacco 101. We take these pig lungs, and we give this little vaping presentation. One of the pig lungs is injected with tobacco and we blow them up, and kind of show what your lungs will look like if you smoke for years or for however long,” said Haeck. Southeast Health Department brings an educational and informative approach to share with students.

Right now, vaping is high among high schoolers as these companies are targeting this audience. “Vaping is huge with our high school kids right now, and it’s starting to get younger and younger unfortunately. In fact, there’s a statistic out there that says out of five high school kids, there’s one that vapes. Then with our junior high kids, there for every 20, there’s one. So younger and younger,” explained Haeck. Tobacco companies are making vapes look cool with the colors, flavors and items they offer. Unfortunately, teenagers are finding ways to purchase these items although they are not of age to purchase.

Health officials are looking for ways to educate and inspire youth and adults to not use tobacco or vaping products so they have set a goal as a state. “So the goal for that is to end tobacco, so the basis of that is to get under five percent. Right now we are at 8.9 as a state and so we’re really targeting that right now, we really want to get that Golden Goal,” said Haeck. The Southeast Health Department hopes by educating the public of the dangers of smoking/vaping it will help bring that 8.9 percent down. They plan on sharing educational information on their website for the Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action at https://www.seuhealth.com/ There will be several topics that parents can open discussions with their students with and play games while learning about the dangers of smoking/vaping.

For further information on Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action, individuals can contact the Southeastern Utah Health Department at (435) 637-3671.