MILTON — Students Working Against Tobacco, Florida’s youth-led statewide organization, is one of six groups and individuals honored with a 2019 World No Tobacco Day award from the World Health Organization. WHO presented SWAT with the award due to its 2018 Not a Lab Rat campaign.
Each year, the World Health Organization presents awards May 31 to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of the policies and measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The Not A Lab Rat campaign seeks to correct misconceptions about the health consequences related to use of e-cigarettes and urges Florida youth to declare that they will not be test subjects in the vaping industry’s long-term experiment.
Youth vaping reached epidemic levels, according to a Florida Youth Tobacco Survey by the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Epidemiology.
“It is exciting to see SWAT recognized for its efforts,” said Kristie Beckstrom, Santa Rosa SWAT Coordinator.
Visit www.swatflorida.com for more about the organization.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Youth group earns WHO award for anti-vaping efforts