 A recent survey conducted by Crowing Energized found that the amount of people in Crowing County that used tobacco products has increased to 23.3% from 17.7% just in the last four years. Between our last two community health surveys, there was a 5% increase in tobacco use in Crowing County, which is pretty much opposite of kind of all of the national trends. A new coalition in Brainerd, founded by Crowing Energized, is working to figure out why. Currently, we'll be able to get that number down of the overall tobacco use, which right now is about 23%, so it's almost one in four. The rise in tobacco use in the county is surprising and concerning for the coalition. Tobacco and smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. It affects overall health, I mean there's so many things, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancers. One reason the coalition is looking at it as to why the rate in tobacco use has increased is the emerging popularity of e-cigarettes. According to a study by the Minnesota Department of Health, over 40% of e-cigarette users would never have used tobacco products, if not for e-cigarettes. The use of other devices, such as e-cigarettes or vaping, same thing, kind of another gateway into using tobacco later on in life. The coalition has many possible routes that they are looking at taking to reduce tobacco use. Some involve just things like different media campaigns, educational campaigns, it could also include different things at a policy level, either at the city or county levels. I know that they've been working in Duluth and Herman Town raising the limit to 21 for buying tobacco products, hoping to offset that younger youth population starting with any nicotine products because that can eventually lead into tobacco use as adults. The coalition plans to meet regularly and work together so that instead of increasing, tobacco use starts decreasing in Currowing County. Reporting from Brainerd, Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News.