TEXAS STUDENTS NAMED NATIONAL YOUTH AMBASSADORS BY CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS

Students are leading the charge to ban flavored tobacco products

Aliya Carr

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Three Texas students have been named as National Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids for demonstrating leadership in fighting tobacco use in their communities.

These young leaders were among 133 youth and young adults from 33 states who participated in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Digital Advocacy Symposium, a five-day online training session focused on building advocacy, communications and leadership skills.

The Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors will work with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to advocate for effective policies to reduce youth tobacco use at the federal, state and local levels. These policies include ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes that are addicting a new generation of kids.

The Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors from Texas include:

• Aliya Carr, 16, is from Dallas, Texas and an incoming high school junior. She has been involved in tobacco prevention and control for three years, with her local TAG Youth Against Tobacco Club. Aliya was inspired to elevate her activism as an Ambassador by her personal experience with tobacco use in her family, and she hopes to motivate her peers to stay tobacco-free.
• Sergio Umanzor, 18, is from Bryan, Texas and a rising college freshman. He has been involved with tobacco control and prevention for two years, through his work and leadership with Vikings Kicking Out Tobacco. As an Ambassador, Sergio will continue to be a leader in tobacco control advocacy in his community and at the national level, and enhance his skills to bring his message with him to college.
• Veronica Verango, 16, is from Bryan, Texas and an incoming high school senior. She has been involved in tobacco control and prevention for four years, as a member of Vikings Kick Out Tobacco. As an Ambassador, Veronica will use her passion for this issue to shape policies, educate her community and address social norms around tobacco use in her school to make it cool to be tobacco-free.

“We are thrilled to welcome this new class of Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors, whose passion and leadership will help us create the first tobacco-free generation,” said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Young people are critical voices in the fight against tobacco because they speak from experience about how they are targeted by the tobacco industry. Policy makers should listen and support strong policies to protect our kids, including a prohibition on all flavored tobacco products.”

While the United States has greatly reduced youth smoking, use of e-cigarettes among young people has skyrocketed in recent years. From 2017 to 2019, e-cigarette use more than doubled among high school students (to 27.5%) and tripled among middle school students (to 10.5%), according to the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey. More than 5.3 million kids used e-cigarettes 2019 – an increase of more than 3 million in two years. Sweet flavors like gummy bear, mint and mango have fueled the popularity of e-cigarettes among kids.

Other flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, are also popular among youth. The tobacco industry has a long history of targeting kids, Black Americans and other groups with marketing for menthol cigarettes and other flavored products, with devastating consequences. More than half of all youth smokers today – including seven out of ten Black youth smokers – smoke menthol cigarettes.

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing approximately 480,000 people and costing about $170 billion in health care bills each year.

In Texas, 11.3 percent of high school students smoke traditional cigarettes, while 18.9 percent use e-cigarettes. Tobacco use claims 28,000 lives in Texas each year.

The Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors were selected through a competitive application process and participated in the Digital Advocacy Symposium to become powerful advocates for change. In addition to gaining advocacy and communications skills, these young leaders learned about how tobacco use is a social justice issue because of tobacco-related health disparities due to the tobacco industry’s longtime targeting of minority populations.