IBERIA PARISH, La. (KLFY) — The Iberia Parish School District in partnership with the Iberia Medical Center held an “Escape the Vape” event earlier this evening to share the dangers of vaping. Event organizers spoke about the event’s focus on youth health and vaping prevention.

As a way to focus on youth health and vape prevention, the Iberia Parish School District and Iberia Medical Center partnered together to host Escape the Vape. Dr. Moses Kitakule, a pulmonary specialist says because of misinformation, people think vaping is a safer alternative to smoking cigarette although it’s not.

“We want to prevent that because vaping is becoming a gateway to using drugs and smoking,” Kitakule said.

Lisa Landry with Iberia Medical Center says the collaboration with Iberia Parish School District happened following a meeting where the superintendent spoke about an anti-vaping program.

“Dr. Kitakule looked at me, and I looked at him and I said, ‘You know, there is a role for Iberia Medical Center in this in this effort,'” Landry said.

Jodie Garritt with Iberia Parish Educational Center says the event is a collaborative effort to raise awareness on the dangers of vaping and hopes this is the first step in their partnership to grow and cover a variety of topics that concern the community.

“Having a partnership with Iberia Medical gives us that professional authority gives us contacts with those medical providers that we feel like we’re definitely wanting to put on a larger scale so that we can educate our families and also make some significant changes for them,” Garritt said.

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