Madison-Grant United School Corporation

FAIRMOUNT — On Monday, junior high students from Madison-Grant teamed up with Marion Health and Tobacco Prevention Coordinator Carrie Pollock by cleaning up cigarette butt litter after the James Dean Festival.

Before setting out on the cleanup efforts, Pollock talked to the students about what is in the tobacco products and how it can be dangerous for the environment as well as the animals who may come in contact with them.

“Smoking is the number one leading cause of death and secondhand smoke is the number three cause of preventable death,” Pollock said. “Cigarette butt litter is the most littered product in the world. And we litter roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette that’s a year.”

According to Pollock, the cigarette butts are also made out of plastic and it can take over 10 years for them to fully decompose. Additionally, she said those who live in waterfront areas can see issues within their water supply.

The students and Pollock started at Horner’s Market and worked their way down Main Street and into Play Acres Park. The group spent two hours cleaning their way through town and continued to pick up more cigarette butts on the way back. They were also encouraged to pick any other trash or litter along their walk through the town.

“It cost our cities a significant amount of money to do these cleanups and it is very toxic for our environment and our wildlife. We encourage people to discard their cigarette butts properly,” Pollock said said.

Pollock said this is the second year where Marion Health and Madison-Grant partnered up to do a clean up in Fairmount.

“I’ve done it quite a few times. Once you do this, your eyes are open to it,” she said. “That’s kind of the point, it’s to open people’s eyes to it and let them see what’s really going on in their world. It also broadens their own educational horizon and make them care a little bit more.”

Last week, Pollock also spoke to Madison-Grant students about the differences and similarities between tobacco and nicotine products.

“We talked about how although tobacco isn’t necessarily in vapes, and tobacco is very is very dangerous in and of itself. It’s not just tobacco, which is a common misconception,” Pollock said. “A lot of people think that their vapes are safer because there’s no tobacco in it.”

During her Wednesday presentation, Pollock showed the students examples of smokers’ lungs versus a vapers’ lung, a smoker’s mouth versus a vaper’s mouth as well as the long-term damage in someone’s health to help raise awareness.

“We’re already seeing serious affects even in the short time with the lung diseases that vapers have, even though it hasn’t been around as long,” she said.