CDC: Smoking population decreases

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY – America’s air is a little bit clearer these days.

The Centers for Disease Control released a report last week that found the proportion of Americans who smoke cigarettes daily has decreased from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 19.3 percent in 2010.

According to the report, the South has the second highest proportion of smokers, trailing the Midwest. The proportion of smokers in the South, 21 percent, is above the national average of 19.3 percent. The South also did the worst at reducing its smoking population — it has decreased by less than one percent since 2005.

Brian Savage, history senior, attributed the South’s penchant for smoking cigarettes as part of the “Southern lifestyle.”

“We’re less health-conscious down here,” he said.

Many people identify lung cancer and other lung-related diseases as the main ailments associated with smoking, overlooking the broad spectrum of diseases the habit may cause, said Kathy Saichuk, health promotion coordinator for the LSU Health Center.

“We’re here to help if people are interested in quitting,” Saichuk said.

-The Daily Reveille
By Josh Naquin

With iPads and e-books, U begins shift to digital

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA – New technologies are lightening backpacks and saving paper as the University of Minnesota transitions away from dead-tree class materials.

This fall, the College of Education and Human Development gave away 440 iPad 2 tablets to its freshmen, Dean Jean Quam said. Using $216,000 in private donations, the college began providing its students with iPad technology last year.

Freshman Pashie Vang received an iPad this year. She said having Internet access everywhere was “very convenient,” though she wishes typing on the device was less awkward.

Quam hopes the availability of technology would encourage professors to implement it in their courses. Not enough of class material is posted online, she said.

The school launched a website designed for iPad use last week.

The library at the University’s Crookston campus has a device that is part voice recorder, part tablet computer called a “smartpen.” Smartpens are available for use by students visiting the library and can be checked out with a U Card free of charge.

The pens simultaneously record lectures and capture written notes with an infrared camera that tracks pen strokes on special paper. When tapping a certain word on the paper, the pen replays that portion of the lecture.

-The Minnesota Daily
By Jeff Hargarten

More ‘fracking’ expected in the state

MARSHALL UNIVERSITY – As the upcoming West Virginia state gubernatorial election nears, candidates have been discussing controversial topics that impact both workers and the environment.

Gas drilling, or “fracking,” was a major topic discussed among the candidates for governor at a forum last week.

Acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said West Virginia will likely be obtaining two more sites for Marcellus shale gas drilling.

“Fracking” is short for hydraulic fracturing, which is the process of fracturing through a layer of shale rock to obtain trapped natural gas by sending a water mixture into the rock at a very high pressure. The process of fracking is deemed harmful to the environment by many, including Frank S. Gilliam, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and a plant ecologist.

“This fracking water that comes up after it’s all done is highly laden with ions, particularly sodium and chloride,” Gilliam said. “It’s almost like concentrated seawater.”

In June 2008, a study was conducted in the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia, in which fracking fluid was sprayed over a section of the woods. According to the study, “two years after the fluid application, 56 percent of the trees were dead.”

-The Parthenon
By Rachel Hunter

— Compiled by Caroline Bauman,
staff writer