Wellness Center reports on Great American Smoke-Out and World AIDS Day

Wellness Center reports on Great American Smoke-Out and World AIDS Day

From the Wellness Center

Great American Smoke-Out Survey
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Great American Smoke-Out Smoking  Survey!

Here are the correct answers:

  • For each cigarette smoked, by how much time is your life shortened? Six minutes. Tobacco causes premature wrinkling of the skin, baldness, impotence in males, and infertility.
  • There are about 4,000 chemicals in each cigarette (40 of those chemicals cause cancer).

Congratulations to Edward Pokorny who won a $20 certificate to Chipotle!

Have you quit smoking? How is the process going for you? Let us know if there is anything we can do to help you or your friends to quit smoking. The Wellness Center is located in the lower level of Koch Commons. Free nicotine patches still are available for people who apply, and quit kits also are available in the center.

World Aids Day

Stop AIDS; keep the promise.

World AIDS Day is observed every year on Dec. 1. This worldwide effort is designed to: encourage public support and programming to prevent the spread of HIV infection; provide awareness and education about HIV/AIDS; and demonstrate compassion for people who are infected or affected by HIV.

The Wellness Center will host a table from 11 a.m. to noon Friday, Dec. 1, in Koch Commons to raise awareness about World AIDS Day. We will have red ribbons available and three candles will be burning for all the children, women and men worldwide who have died of AIDS. Please stop by to get your red ribbon and dedicate a moment of silence for the victims of AIDS/HIV.

Here are some facts about AIDS:

  • Every day, AIDS claims as many lives as American fatalities in the Vietnam War. Since it was discovered, AIDS has killed more than 25 million people – more than the combined population of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and nearly 10 times the number of earthquake fatalities in the last century.
  • Every day, 6,000 children are orphaned by AIDS, joining 15 million children worldwide who have lost parents to AIDS. If all of these children held hands, they would stretch 5.5 times across the United States. By 2011 this virtual chain will reach around the world.

For more information, visit the Minnesota Department of Health Web page on World AIDS Day 2006. You can request red ribbons via e-mail to the Wellness Center and include your campus mailbox number.