Youths speak out on healthy lifestyles

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August 11, 2017 - 12:00 AM

A group of students whose aim is to discourage alcohol and tobacco use and other unhealthy practices gave Iola Rotarians a first-hand look Thursday at some of their goals.
The youths are assembled as the ACMAT Youth Action Team. ACMAT is an acronym for Allen County Multi-Agency Team, a consortium of several agencies that deal with physical and mental issues and other things to the good of the county.
The young folks did an ecological survey to help determine where they should focus their efforts.
They found a cigarette disposal container next to a door at Iola High School; cigarette butts and other evidence of tobacco use, including discarded packages, strewn across town; vape bottles used for e-cigarettes along biking and hiking trails; cigarette butts around Iola’s skate park; liquor and other alcoholic beverage containers in several public places, including ball fields in the park.
Tobacco use is restricted to areas at least 10 feet from public buildings, meaning the disposal container at IHS indicated a clear violation of state law.
Colin Long concluded the presentation with a few words about Resist Impact Training, which has given the youths a leg up in “our efforts to fight the influence of ‘big tobacco.’”
Among other aims, the group hopes to have tobacco and alcohol advertising, sometimes blatantly apparent, removed from easy viewing of passersby.
“Alcohol and tobacco advertising are very visible in Iola,” he said.
Long also pointed out school districts based in Moran (USD 256) and Humboldt (258) have adopted policies making their campuses and other facilities tobacco-free.
Iola (USD 257) is conspicuous by not having done so, he noted.

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