What is public health? Students in the UGA Health & Wellness class are here to help you find out! They have strategically identified examples in the Athens community that they feel represent public health in action. This blog is dedicated to explaining, understanding, and discussing what their interpretations of public health, as well as their reactions to learning about topics of health and wellness.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Proper Disposal for Cigarettes!


   


   Our first example of Public Health is an ashtray designed for cigarette butts installed by Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful organization. The ashtray is located downtown on a pole near the crosswalk in front of Five Guys Restaurant.
   Our choice of this ashtray is an example of public health because several trillion cigarettes are improperly disposed every year. As a result, cigarettes are the most littered items in America and take up to 15 years to decay, and release deadly cargo during the process.
    We chose this example because the ashtray attempts to improve the overall health of the Athens-Clarke County environment and community by bringing awareness of proper disposal of cigarette butts. Another reason why we decided to use this example is because of its central location. With the ashtray being placed on a busy section of downtown Athens as well as its fluorescent green color, it's more likely to attract the attention of smokers. 
    It is important for others to consider this an example of public health because smokers need to be more aware of the proper ways to dispose of their cigarette butts, so they won’t continue to pollute the community.




Brianna Watts
Janesa Frazier
Jamario Calhoun

3 comments:

  1. Chelsea, Jennifer, and Kristen--We think this is a great thing to have around, because it keeps trash off of the streets and helps to prevent fires. This is a perfect example of public health as it directly benefits the community.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The topic we learned in class is cigarettes and its affects on the body. Cigarettes have many effects on the body such as lung caner, decreases physical performance, constrict blood vessels, raised blood pressure and heart rate, and sometimes even death. Cigarettes have many bad chemicals such as carbon monoxide, tar and radioactive compounds. This topic interested me because many people die from second hand smoke. Each year an average of 46,000 deaths are cause by second hand smoke. I think this disposal is very important cause it reduces second hand smoke and keeps the air clean. This impacts my life because it keeps the air around me very clean with fewer chemicals in the air which gives me a better overall health. i know man people who smoke so I think it can help my family in a positive way. There will also be fewer cigarettes on the sidewalk and road. This topic is really important to the public because many college students smoke and its safe for us(college students at uga) to keep our city clean. Smoking has always been a big component of public health. How many more proper dispensers are there in the city of athens? We should have some everywhere.


    Derrick, Ashley, Paul

    ReplyDelete