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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2000)
Page 6A NEWS Wednesday, Ociott i THE BATTALION Ifedncsday, C Recycling Continued from Page 1 individual dorm environmental chairs, to help students realize the harmful effects of excess waste on the environment if they do not recycle. Texas A&M produces more than 10,000 tons of recyclable 'waste per year, but only 700 tons are actually recycled and more than 9,000 tons are taken to the landfill, said Nathan Jones, superintendent for Util ities Operations. An environmental commit tee is in place in some residence halls, but not campus-wide. The environmental chair of each hall that has a recycling pro gram is in charge of dorm recy cling. The environmental chair calls the Recycling Office for pickups, designates a drop-off area and promotes recycling. The EIC decided to design a campaign by approaching stu dents on an individual basis. The environmental chairs of each residence hall will go room to room to promote recy cling by handing out brochures and providing boxes for active recycling within the hall. There are several fire hazard and health restrictions on stockpiling goods and they can inhibit the storage of recyclable materials. One such rule allows flammable materials to be stored only in certain places within the halls for limited amounts of time. Chris Teran, graduate hall director for Mclnnis Hall and a sociology graduate student, said it is impossible to have a drop-off center at Mclnnis be cause it is a balcony hall with no central location for storage. “If we had some sort of cen tral drop-off point on campus, I am sure that recycling within the dorms would be much more successful,” Teran said. The items that are taken to the Recycling Office are crushed into bales and then sold to buyers. Jones said that by selling the recyclable mate rials at a low rate, A&M does not have to pay a disposal ex pense, which saves the Univer sity a substantial amount of money. Hiche said that a key to re cycling success on campus is to increase the students’ demand for better recycling facilities and services. Simply placing more recycling bins in the res idence halls and throughout campus is not the answer, Hiche said. Hiche said that some resi dence halls have successfully began their own programs, not knowing that there is one on campus. The Recycling Office id If we had some sort of central drop off point on campus / 1 am sure that recy cling in the dorms would be much more successful” — Chris Teran graduate hall director for Mclnnis Hall will pick up goods on its week ly route if notified to do so, Hiche said. “The problem is that they rarely know that there is a Re cycling Center on campus, so the result is very active stu dents picking up all the recy clable, spending their own gas and time, and taking it all to Wal-Mart.” Hiche went on to say that the program eventually dies out at the end of the year when the initiators of the program leave for the summer and then it usually is not started again in the fall. Off-campus students can participate in the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency (BVSWMA), a joint project between Bryan and College Station. Citizens can take their recyclable goods to the joint landfill. There is a used-oil recycling center, a white-goods recycling center and a metal recycling project. BVSWMA also holds two master compost classes a year, holds composting workshops and provides information about recycling to citizens through such programs as Brazos Beau tiful, Household Hazardous Waste Collection, and the Plan et Earth Celebration. BVSWMA receives more sup port from the community in its programs than A&M does from faculty and students. “It is up to the individual to reduce waste and then recycle whatever you can,” said Gail Brady, environmental compli ance officer for BVSWMA. “It’s up to the community to make a difference.” Matt Allen, public works intern for College Station, said that College Station has tried to work with the Recycling Of fice and Physical Plat: cate the faculty on re; but there are no fint partnership. All of these facton: one simple fact; stiiu| not going to drive to tit! cling Office to takek amount of recyclable each week and they ad ing to pickup such;] amount from an indivit So, until strong pri on campus are estatl within the residence!! Recycling Office wi ini ape DALE/ Awareness Continued from Page 1 is a 97 percent five-year survival rate for breast cancer victims. This statistic is a result of advances in treatment technology and an increase in the number of patients who are di agnosed in the early stages of cancer. There is no proven prevention for breast cancer, but Margaret Griffith, education co ordinator for the A.P. Beutel Health Center suggests that both men and women conduct a breast self-examination every month, an an nual clinical exam and a mammogram after the age of 40. Griffith said, depending upon family his tory of breast cancer, it is best to talk with a health care professional as to whether it is necessary to begin mammograms before that time. Other suggestions to help reduce the chances for developing breast cancer include eating a low-fat diet and limiting alcoholic intake to less than two beverages a day. “Age is a huge risk factor in the probabil ity of developing cancer,” Griffith said. The ACS also reports that gender, obesi ty, environmental pollution, physical inac tivity, genetic history and not having children until after the age of 30 are all factors that can increase the risk of breast cancer. This month, Beutel has information tables setup in various spots to provide information to students, faculty and administration. Gen der Issues and Aggie Reach are among sev eral organizations that have had information booths setup on campus. As part of NBCAM, Oct. 20 has been des ignated National Mammography Day. During October, and especially on the 20. various fa cilities in the Bryan-College Station area will offer reduced-rate mammograms and clinical exams. Women over the age of 40 are strong ly encouraged to have 5n exam done annual ly, even if they suspect nothing is wrong. ue to grapple foranswet why their program isl successful. : »irtment Students, faculty, ^ wo administration can , 11 !° recyclable materials 1 ‘ K ,heRecycUngOffi a Tl“ r h ^ College Avenue, orc^l® T h e dec cycling Information HixlLu, 845-7777. * T his is Gary 1 KwsinTin If a person is diagnosed with brei pi C( we’re t cer, the College Station ACS has sever®“The ba grams to help patients through the leJjThere’s nc and recovery process. E Police w For more information about breast; liv ing dow risks, setup an appointment at Beute! saw the bio clinical exam with a health professioniw O ne °* ^ tact the ACS online at www.cancer.ort ^ • has bee phone at 800-ACS-2345,24-hoursadj§’ P°hce h information, counseling, support.; and to locate nearby clinics. u Thi BuAfi BuArt BuArt BuArt BuArt BuArt BuArt BLArt BLArt BuAH; BuArt BlAH; BuArt BuArt BuAfi BuArt BuAh BuArt BuArt BtArt BuAfi BuArt BuArt BuArt BuArt BLArt BuArt BuAfi BuArt BuArt BuArt BuAfi BuArt BuArt BUArt BLAH BLArt BuArt BuAfi BuAfi BtA BuArt BuAfi BtAfi Bu BuAfr BuArt BuArt Blj BuArt BuArt BLArt Bt BuAfi BuArt BuAfi B BuArt BuArt BuArt B BuAfi BuArt BuArt B BuAfi BuArt BuArt B guArt BuArt BuArt B> guM* BuAfi BuArt B guArt BuArt BLArt Bi BUM BuM BUM Bt BuArt bum bum bi Art BUM BUM BuAfi Art bum bum bum Art bum bum bum Art bum bum bum Art BUM BUM BtArt Art Bum bum bum Art BUM BUM BUM BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt Art BtArt BtArt BtArt Art BtArt BtArt BtArt Art BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt BtArt Tobacco Continued from Page 1 money to get a tobacco prevention message out there. Big Tobacco spends about $400 million a year in Texas to promote themselves, and up until now, we’ve never spent a significant amount of money to fight this. “With $10 million, even though that’s a drop in the bucket, it’s still the first time we’ve ever taken the initiative to counteract and counter- advertise with the industry,” he said. In November of last year. Coop er said he met with United, a coali tion of community groups in the Bryan-College Station area, to de termine what would work in the area to fight the influence of tobacco and prevent children’s use of tobacco. “A large portion of the campaign within the area is youth-oriented,” Cooper said. Of the four study branches, the focus within Brazos County will be on media — including anti-smoking commercials, billboards and radio spots — and cessation, which fo cuses on getting smokers to quit smoking and work with local doc tors to question months. The survey reportecl the main reasons to quit indl family discussior^ about theift of smoking and feelings ofei| rassment over smoking. The survey found that televj and newspaper articles wertj patient smoking and address spe cific topics. In one com mercial aimed at adults, a smoker who has been try ing to quit places a picture of his daughter inside the plastic wrap in his pack of cig arettes, which re minds him not to smoke. To target youth, teenagers dd What we're hop ing to accomplish is to basically raise people's awareness of the tobacco issue” — Dr. Bryan Colwell associate professor of Social and Behavioral Health in the A&M School of Rural and Public Health ar-old ma mos. commonly reported sons g, tentati , information about quitting. ■ ^ () arrcs As a result, the AmericanGM Family n Society introduced a new telepj apartment c counseling service in Texas foil comment, pie who want to quit smoking.:,; Police la zos county residents can call ]■$. bors and ide YES-QUIT. I Neighbo South Texas’ major universi®J ex ^ including Texas A&M, the Univ# lac ! l ^’ ot 0 ty of Texas Health Science CenlijjL^ Houston and Prairie View A&M tifiedtold tl contributing to the study, Cm tie noisy, bi said. A neighl For several years, NMM 'the slain far been funded by TDH to miiaA 'tershe saw t adolescent smoking cessimirtfeiling- gram, said Dr. Bryan Colwell - associate professor in the Dep| ment of Social and Behavil Health in the A&M Schoolofi al and Public Health. After the passage of a senalej that states underage teens; "ISANAN! ticketed anil lll ‘ onalre , s to a non-piaif I1VIC11011 lr class, A0 “ r a ' com P n- , . federal inve' met 1 fon whether th gram to a<t f accuser modate * s timony. | Businessn was found g serve as awareness o as well. As TDH prog; Colwell lillio adolescent fenders Our new local calling plan is groat for the blah, blah, blahs. 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See stores for details and local calling plan boundaries. from Southeast Texas came togeth er to produce the Duck, a cartoon character who stars in the TDH campaign’s “Tobacco is Foul” radio and TV advertisements. Though pri marily targeted for the schools and community study, the ads can be seen and heard in Bryan-College Station. “When [the TDH] decided to create this whole project, they wanted to do a combination of rur al and urban areas,” Cooper said, stating that Brazos County’s televi sion and radio stations made the county a prime target for studying the media effects on the area. “The legislature in general did not want to go statewide, they wanted to in stead use an area that was represen tative of the entire state.” Fifteen percent of Brazos Coun ty residents reported they were cur rent cigarette smokers, slightly low er than the 19 percent average in other surveyed areas, said Dr. An gela Meshack and Dr. Alfred McAl ister of the University of Texas- Houston School of Public Health (UTH). However, UTH surveys showed that the rate of smokeless tobacco use is higher among Brazos Coun ty youth than youth in other sur veyed areas. Nearly 60 percent of adult smok ers polled in the county, said this summer that they were serious about wanting to quit within six Setting up th Sheila Bellu; slit and who ota, Fla., he dler quadrup Carriage we compare seit ier blood, ported resufol Golfing bu the clmv.ho testified which are usually higher than Contended in results and are sometimes inaq lier this monl rate, to biochemical validity l such as saliva tests for nicotine® tabolizes in youth samples TDH’s test areas and the c groups in other parts of the stale | “Youth cessation is sorae"j different than in adults,” Col"| said. “We’re trying to providetli| leered the 19 lellush. But US. A londay he is llackthome u with some basic cessation stj Most youth come in fairly resist] to change, they tell us, ‘Look, 11 don’t want to quit.’ And wei stand that. All we’re trying todM provide them with the skills to do; | in the future.’ What TDH and its allies in IT pilot study hope to uncover is as* lution to the problems raised byi] bacco use and increased tobafll advertising within the state. Surveyors will go back schools in Houston and PortAitH to assess the viability of a tob prevention program, and all re will be compared for presentatio! before the state legislature for ti 1: f further slating of funds from thetoj bacco settlement. “What we’re hoping to, plish is to basically raise people awareness of the tobacco issue Colwell said. “We turn our in mation over to the legislature, [i they can decide whether they woi^ want to earmark more money ft this process or look at someotlie alternatives in the tobacco issue. ON bixie Chi