Youth Lead the Way in Fighting Back Against Big Tobacco

For Release May 11
Contact: Julie Freestone 925-313-6268
Lisa Bautista Rivera 925-313-6822

A group of youth activists is gearing up for a debate by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and also preparing to celebrate World No-Tobacco Day by exchanging t-shirts and other gear bearing tobacco logos for items with a healthier message.

The youth, members of TIGHT-the Tobacco Industry Gets Hammered by Teens-will take all the gear it collects at three schools in Brentwood and Antioch on May 18th to the Board of Supervisors' meeting the next day to demonstrate how much restrictions on tobacco advertising are needed. Members of a physical education class at La Paloma High School in Brentwood will participate in the gear exchange and show off t-shirts they designed to unmask the tobacco industry and its impact.

"We are taking the stuff we collect to the Board to show exactly how easy it is for us to be made into walking billboards and how active the tobacco industry is in this county. We want it to end and we want the Board to help us," says Lisa Bautista Rivera, TIGHT's Youth Coordinator.

Bautista Rivera says the Board of Supervisors will decide whether to move ahead with an ordinance to ban distribution of promotional materials to minors, require cigarettes to be in locked cases, ban outdoor tobacco advertising near schools, libraries and parks and require licensing tobacco retailers.

"We have been waiting for the Board to move ahead with an ordinance. But in the meantime, we're taking matters into our own hands with this gear exchange. We want to do our part of reduce the amount of tobacco advertising in our communities," says Bautista Rivera.

Jim Nabas, the physical education teacher at La Paloma High School who encouraged his students to get involved, says youth action is important in changing the way the tobacco industry encourages youth to view tobacco. He reached beyond the normal physical education curriculum to be sure his students understand how the tobacco industry manipulates them and the potential impact tobacco can have on their lives.

"I noticed that most of the students in my classes were using tobacco so I decided to do a special lesson about it," says Nabas, explaining that he encouraged his students to do research, write papers and design the t-shirts.

World No-Tobacco Day on May 31st is sponsored by the World Health Organization. Its theme this year is Growing Up Tobacco Free: Youth Without Tobacco.

Content provided by the Tobacco Prevention Project of Contra Costa Health Services.