Friday, December 13, 2013

Local Teens Illuminate Deceptive E-Cigarette Vapors



(Salt Lake City, UT)— “Come and get it!” As food trucks clamor for your lunch money, someone else is getting your kids’ lunch money – and it’s not your ordinary street cart vendor. On December 13th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., there will be a ‘Stuff’ Cart at the south end of the Gateway Mall (below the movie theaters) offering ambiguous “stuff” and delivering an important message about e-cigarettes.

The Stuff Cart is sponsored by Outrage!, a statewide youth coalition dedicated to telling Utahns about the dangers of tobacco and e-cigarettes. Just like the stuff displayed at their cart, e-cigarettes and nicotine vaporizers are sold in youth-appealing flavors, marketed in areas with youth traffic, and have no ingredient labels.

“Through our ‘See Through the Vapor’ statewide campaign, we are calling for concern over the increasing popularity and easy access of e-cigarettes among teens,” said Reagan Rees, local teen and Outrage! member.

Despite having no legal access to e-cigarettes, recent data released by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) show that Utah youth are three times more likely to use e-cigarettes than adults. The devices are often marketed as cessation devices, although 31.7% of students that reported ever using e-cigarettes say they have never tried conventional cigarettes, raising fears that electronic cigarettes are the preferred nicotine product of choice for youth.

“With the ingredients and dangers unknown, tempting candy-like flavors, celebrity endorsed marketing campaigns, and trends toward increasing use, monitoring youth access to these devices is a public health priority,” said Adam Bramwell, Marketing Manager, UDOH Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

This launch event will be followed by similar localized ‘Stuff’ Cart events by Outrage! youth across the state through the month of January.

A sneak peek at the ‘Stuff’ Cart can be seen at http://youtu.be/LXk-IlPRLTM online.


Media Contact:
Adam Bramwell
Marketing Manager
(o) 801.538.6917 (m) 801.380.0780