The Iowa Department of Public Health today released the results of the state’s first youth survey on tobacco use. Department director Dr. Stephen Gleason presented the results in front of a mural of Teddy Roosevelt at Roosevelt Middle School in Mason City. Gleason says Iowans need to band together in the battle against tobacco. He says Teddy Roosevelt is a good symbol because battling tobacco is a war.Gleason says the survey shows Iowa is above the national average for children using tobacco.He says 12-percent of Iowa middle school students use tobacco, that’s above the national average of nine percent. A third of Iowa high school students smoke, higher than the 28-percent national average. Division of Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control director Cathy Callaway says the problem cannot be attacked from just one angle.Callaway says the department has received a lot of input from teens that recently participated in a summit to discuss ways to discourage tobacco use.Twenty-six middle schools and twenty-seven high schools participated in the survey.
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