Two St. Lucie County teens are helping to lead the fight against tobacco and smoking. Students Working Against Tobacco, or SWAT, Florida’s statewide youth-led movement to combat the tobacco industry, announced that Elizabeth Sterling and Amanda Bouquet, members of the St. Lucie County SWAT chapter, have been named Youth Advocacy Board-elects.
The Youth Advocacy Board works in collaboration with the Florida Dept. of Health’s Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida to support initiatives that help protect youth from tobacco and secondhand smoke exposure.
Both Sterling, who lives in St. Lucie West, and Bouquet, who lives in Port St. Lucie, are students at Lincoln Park Academy. Each spoke by phone about why the cause is so important to her.
Sterling, who will be a senior this fall, became active in SWAT as a sophomore. She was looking for someplace to volunteer and a friend recommended it.
“It was a place to make a movement and be passionate about a cause,” she said. “Once I found SWAT, I was amazed at the tactics the tobacco industry uses (to target) young people. I wanted to educate people about what I know. Big Tobacco has new products and ways to replace old smokers. It’s very important to show people the numbers. Cigarette smoking is starting to decline and there are new e-cigarettes to replace them.”
To discourage young people from the new products, SWAT has a new campaign: “Not a Lab Rat.”
“What we’re trying to show people is that we don’t know the effects in 10 or 20 years,” Sterling said. “We are the lab rats for the companies. They’re using the same tactics they used with older tobacco, saying they didn’t know. We’re concerned the same thing will happen. There is no actual research and we are trying to advocate, ‘Let’s not be the lab rats.’”
Sterling, who hopes to go to college in Boston and then medical school, was influenced by the advocacy of the students at Stoneman Douglas High School.
“When Parkland happened, it showed how our generation can be a voice to everyone else, whatever the age group,” she said.
For Bouquet, her decision to join SWAT was personal. “One day, my mom said you have to find a club,” she said. “I joined it without knowing what it was. My grandpa died from lung cancer and my dad has emphysema and I’m against smoking. I discovered how passionate people were. I slowly became more a part of it and now I’m vice president. I really liked the part that we were educating people to make our own decisions and not hassling people. I loved that. We’re about telling the truth.”
Bouquet said that their goal is fighting the messages the tobacco companies send out.
“We really like exposing Big Tobacco,” she said. “They are feeding us lies. They still like to use the terms that some cigarettes are ‘safer’ because they have better filters or are light. Now they’ve started a new campaign about electronic nicotine dispensers because more youth are going to electric. There is no data to show it’s safer. They’re still testing products on us. This is the test generation, and later, when we develop diseases, they’ll say, ‘Oh, so this is what it does.’ Then the cycle starts again.”
Bouquet said that tobacco companies like using Point of Sale locations right up front to sell their products. “They’re near the gum or candy,” she said. “They always have deals and they sell them in low socioeconomic areas. They’re selling a lifestyle, that you’ll be cool. They’re using the same playbook and tactics (they’ve always used). It’s just different products. They haven’t changed it because it works. That’s what we’re trying to expose.”
Bouquet said there is a lot of vaping, as the use of electronic cigarettes is called, on social media. There are also vape shops where you can buy the product and smoke it there.
“Vaping inside is legal,” she said.
“You have to be 18 to purchase, but you can also buy them online by clicking ‘yes’ about your age.”
Bouquet, who is also a senior, hopes SWAT spreads the campaign throughout Florida and beyond.
“We want to spread it around the country,” she said. “People need to realize that they’re using us again and it’s not OK.”
Not surprisingly, Bouquet is also thinking about a career in medicine. She’s looking at Emory University, but first, she has work to do this year, spreading the word in her region and on social media.
“I am really looking forward to working with all the new Youth Advocacy Board-elects and seeing what amazing work we will do this year,” she said.
“I’m excited to see what everyone brings to the table.”
For more information about SWAT in Florida, visit www.swatflorida.com.