The state’s anti-smoking campaign, JEL — for Just Eliminate Lies, is launching a campaign today which targets the health risks of inhaling second-hand smoke. Keven Arrowsmith is spokesman for the Iowa Division of Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control. New data in the 2002 Iowa Youth Tobacco Survey finds 70-percent of middle schoolers and 73-percent of high schoolers say they’d been exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke in a room seven days before the survey was done. The survey also found tobacco use among high school students in Iowa dropped by 13-percent between 2000 and 2002. Arrowsmith says JEL is trying to get the word out about the dangers as he says second-hand smoke kills 500 Iowans a year.Arrowsmith says JEL has zeroed in on second-hand smoke before. He says the previous campaign focused more on the chemicals in second-hand smoke. He says second-hand smoke is the third-leading cause of preventable deaths in the U-S.
