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Locally, North Carolina health organizations are working on a number of fronts to enact policies designed to stem the rising number of young people who are using e-cigarettes. O’Connell is working with the North Carolina Alliance for Health to bring back the state’s formerly award -winning youth tobacco prevention program. According to O’Connell, education initiatives such as the state’s previous anti-tobacco effort may be effective in keeping e-cigarettes away from minors. The Orange County Health Department, in concert with the Orange County Board of Commissioners and counties across the state, has been advocating other e-cigarette control policies. Orange County health educator Coby Jansen Austin supports a public policy of giving jurisdictions the right to raise the minimum sale age for tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21. According to Austin, policy actions make a real difference in decreasing the number of young people who start using tobacco products. “What we know has worked in tobacco control and contributed to a lot of the drop in tobacco use that we’ve seen over the last five or six decades are some of the policies around tobacco,” she says. “And so I think the FDA regulations are a good exampl e of where we have the appropriate research and we take appropriate policy actions. It’s not just about education and sharing information, though those are also components.” Tagged American Heart Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, e-cigarette, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, National Youth Tobacco Survey, NC Alliance for Health, Orange County, tobacco, tobacco cessation, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, youth tobacco use