Smoking Ban in Bessemer...Western Tribune Column

I've gotten behind in posting my Western Tribune columns.

Here is the column from August 15. Let's hope the council follows through.

The Bessemer City Council is poised to do something really progressive for our city. The public safety committee has endorsed a ban on smoking in most public places including restaurants. Under the proposal, smoking in bars would still be permitted.

While I know that news of this ordinance will not be welcomed by some, the facts are that second hand smoke is estimated to be responsible for 3400 lung cancer deaths and between 22,700 and 69,600 heart disease deaths in this country annually. In addition, each year second hand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in infants less than 18 months old, resulting in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

As the surgeon general’s recent report on smoking said, there is no risk free level of exposure to second hand smoke. In fact, as far as human behavior goes, tobacco use is the number one behavior (as opposed to specific causes) responsible for death in America (followed by poor diet and lack of exercise).

While smoking may be considered a right by those who choose to engage in the habit, we must put the health of the public above individual rights in some instances. Childhood vaccination requirements for entry into public school and motorcycle helmet laws are examples where this has been done in the past. And in each case, the result was a positive one.

Some states have enacted legislation banning smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars throughout their states, and several municipalities in Alabama have done the same. Other cities have partial bans like the one proposed for Bessemer.

Regulations like this continue the progress toward a healthier Alabama. Formaldehyde, vinyl chloride and benzene are among the hundreds of toxic chemicals found in second hand smoke and do not need to find their way into anyone’s body. The lungs are one of the most common points of entry into the body for harmful substances, and when just going outdoors exposes us to harmful particulate pollution as has been case recently, we do not need to add to the injury by being exposed indoors as well.

This ordinance will move Bessemer up in regards to environmental sensitivity. Rather than looking at the inconvenience that a partial ban on smoking places on a few, let’s be thankful that our city will be sending a positive message to our children.

More of the Storm

I said the other day that Red Stripe and Appleton helped us cope with the storm, but really it was the thoughts and prayers of our friends and families, and our limited contact that gave us reassurance.

We lost internet access Saturday, and for some of us our cell phones would not work to call the states. But we discovered we could send and recieve text messages, so updates like these let us know where the storm was and what was being reported at home. Until we lost that ability at the height of the storm as well.













Thanks Bobby and Ted. Ted reported the National Hurricane Center updates, Bobby reported off the Weather Channel. Your updates kept us informed and just being in contact, even electronically was conforting.

I want someone who understands these things to tell me why my verizon phone (which does not have international capability) was able to transmit text but not voice.

Of course we did have battery powered radio and good information was available there also, but we liked getting information from our families.

Jamaican hospitality and concern are top notch. On the day after the storm, when public transportation was cut off and everyone was dealing with their own problems, the kitchen staff showed up and prepared us lunch. One woman told me they were concerned about us and thought we needed a hot meal. Jamaicans who were involved with our course returned to check on us. Here is Dr. Brendan Bain of Kingston who lectured us on HIV and AIDS checking on us after the storm.

And we were able to make our presentations and have a celebration on Monday night, thanks to a generator and a gas stove. Here is Mr. Henroy Scarlett of UWI receiving an award from Madhav Bhatta of the Sparkman Center for Global Health while Dr. Stephanie Brodine of San Diego State University looks on.

My group was the mosquito group and here we are (minus Stephanie and Maung, two Jamaican students who are also public health officers in their parishes) with our instructor Mr. Trevor Castle, a retired entomologist from UWI who knows literally everything there is to know about the mosquito vectors of Jamaica.

On the night before the storm, several locals came by to make sure the Americans felt secure for the next day before going to their homes or shelters to endure the storm.

That will probably end my hurricane coverage for this blog, unless I come across pictures that I can't resist sharing. But I will post next week some information about Jamaica and the communities we worked in.

And thanks to all of you who sent emails, texts, calls, thoughts and prayers before, during and after the storm. Your well wishes are greatly appreciated.

Jamaica: After Dean

We did not venture out Sunday night after the storm because gusts were still occuring and things could still be falling and flying. Also, there was debris and nails and power lines down and even with flashlights (torchlights they say) it didn't seem safe.

So Monday morning we ventured out. Palm trees are made for hurricanes, because few were down. Their leaves were shredded and some of the leaves broken or stripped off, but the trunks were standing, and they will survive. This is outside our room. Deciduous trees seemed to suffer more.









Wooden manmade structures are not made for hurricanes, as this arbor did not make it.













It takes a strong wind to blow a chain link fence over...seems like the wind could just go through it.








These chunks of wood almost made it through the fence
















We use chain saws...they use machetes. The guy on the bike is security.















The streets of Kingston were littered with debris and downed power lines. but the Kingston residents are right back in business, as this fruit stand has reopened and has a customer. People have to eat.

Small shrubs and flowers did not fare well. Before and after. I think this one will be blooming again before summer ends.















But the day we left the sun rose on beautiful tropical Jamaica tempting us to find a a way to stay. But that temptation didn't last, and soon we were on our way to the airport. Once there, power outages (don't you think a generator at an airport would be a good idea?) caused delays and frustation among the hundreds of passengers. But the airline employees had the upper hand,and held their composure even though they had to process each passport and write out each ticket by hand.




















The air was still and hot and the waiting areas were dark and we sat for a couple of hours with ipods and cameras. We sweated and we waited with the masses.

Finally our flight number was announced and we made our way to the plane, confident that within a few hours we would be home.

No Prob, Mon

We arrived in Birmingham around 10:30 last night from Kingston, Jamaica, all safe and accounted for. The local media has picked up this story, and today (the first day of classes for us at UAB's School of Public Health) we held a press conference for them. You will hear students interviewed (and read in the paper), and see some pictures tonight (Wednesday) on TV. But only here will you get the true inside story on how we survived hurricane Dean. The satellite view was from NOAA and the graphics were from AccuWeather.

Really, all the interviews are truthful, and we never felt that our lives were threatened by the storm because our hosts from UWI Mona were trained in hurricane preparedness as were many of the students. The higher ups were aware of the storm as it was approaching, and did try to make arrangements for us to leave, but counting the San Diego State students there were about 30 people to move, and it couldn't be done.

We were glad to stay and complete our work in Kingston. We will benefit from the experience of the field work, and we will benefit from experiencing a category 4 hurricane together. So I think our group will benefit from this course more than any group in the past.

I will post stories about the storm and our work over the next few days. People seem to be most interested in the storm, so I will start there.

I said we never felt threatened, but in truth, Red Stripe and Appleton Estates helped ease the anxiety as the storm approached and pounded down on us.

Customary it seems in the United States is to spray paint plywood or sheets with messages for the approaching storm. We were low on sheets and used no plywood, but I sacrificed a shirt for the cause. It must have worked, because something made Dean slightly change his course and stay off the coast, if only for a few miles.

The winds at UWI were estimated to be 100-120 mph. The noise was bothersome, and came in with unpredictable frequency, from winds building in intensity over about 4 or 5 hours, then maintaining high intensity for a couple of hours, followed by several hours of decreasing intensity with unexpected strong bursts. There was lots and lots of rain, I'm not sure how much, I haven't seen the reports.

The day after the storm we assisted a little in cleaning up the area around our part of the campus, and in the afternoon a group went out to Mona Commons, a community they had done some previous work in and assisted them with recovery. They also delivered several hundred dollars of school supplies that we had brought for that community. I will put some "after" pictures on here tomorrow.

Jamaica Part 3

Well here we go. It's Saturday August 18 and Dean will be here in about 28 hours. Our fun stuff has been cancelled, we were to go to Ocho Rios today for a day at the beach and waterfalls. No No.

We are hunkered down at UWI and have plenty of supplies and water. Our buildings are concrete and have withstood powerful storms before. http://www.mona.uwi.edu/

We have notified the U S. embassy of our presence, and have made contact plans for getting in touch with our loved ones in the states.

We are 28 Americans, from UAB and San Diego State University.The Jamaicans in our group are mostly public health workers from across the nation, so almost all have been called back to their parishes to prepare and assist in recovery.

Here is information about the storm: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml? Maybe it will be current.

We are not sure of when the airport will reopen. Our tickets are for Tuesday, but there is a good chance there will be flooding at the airport and that building I wrote about earlier may just get blown away.

There is a lot I wouild like to write about regarding the good work we have done over the last few days, but that will just have to wait. Maybe we will be able to do some good work after the storm passes. When I get home I can write about the good stuff.

In the meantime read some of our journals at http://www.soph.uab.edu/jamaicacourse/JournalHome.html

See ya back in the states.

joe

Jamaica Part2

We are aware of Tropical Storm Dean, and are keeping an eye on him. We are not near the coast, so a storm surge will not affect us. We are in secure concrete block buildings with hurricane shutters so we are not worried. For those who don't know, as of this morning Dean was a Tropical Storm in the Atlantic, barreling toward Jamaica, and the National Weather Service has it centered over Jamaica on Monday as a hurricane.



Here are some pics. First the flowers.



These trees are all over the place.





And so are these with the yellow flowers






And this orange flowered tree.

Here is a mosquito larvae picture I took

Here is part of our mosquito group in the lab

This is the whole UAB Group, including me.

This pretty dragonfly was near a sugar cane field where we were collecting larvae.

Who knows when I will be back on here.

In Kingston

I have been here in Kingston for 48 hours and still can not call out. This is my second opportunity to use the computer, so here are some pictures.



This is the part of the compound on campus that I am staying in. There are several of these and we are spread out among them.









Here is the entrance to my corner. I have a little room downstairs, not the whole thing.







This is Stephanie Fletcher, and she can sing. She is also a pubic health officer here in Jamaica, and is part of our mosquito control group. Here she is entertaining us at dinner Saturday night with a little Jamaican music.


















I know you would be bored with the public health that we are learning, but we did visit a water treatment plant and here are some of us sitting on the edge of the reservoir listening to Mr. Bean tell us about the plant.






















And here is the reservoir itself, surrounded by the Jamaican mountains, it is beautiful.

























The lady in pink here lives nearby and jogs around the reservoir a few days a week. What a great place to jog.


At the Wastewater treatment plant we visited we ran across this guy who climbed a tree and tossed fruit down to us to eat. When I find out the name of it I will let you know.




More in a day or two I hope.