Local lake focus of cigarette litter prevention study

Lake Ouachita will be the focus of the largest Cigarette Litter Prevention Study supported by Keep America Beautiful in 2011. This massive undertaking with 42 test sites has been made possible by a grant from Philip Morris USA, an Altria company, with additional support from RAI Services Company. Each of the sites in the study that has been developed by the Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification Commission (HSGCBC) have been randomized to receive either the full intervention including; "Do Not Litter Cigarette Butts" signage in four types, cigarette ash receptacles, and specially developed information brochures in both English and Spanish. The major partner in this study will be the Corps of Engineers rangers, who will be distributing free pocket and portable ash trays to all smokers 18years of age and older. These sites will also be visited by the well known, "butt-mobile" vehicle distributing more awareness materials including bumper stickers, T shirts, and more. The other half of the sites will not have this intervention and will form placebo sites in order to fairly and accurately measure the effectiveness of the program.

This is the largest, but by no means the first such study carried out by the HSGCBC. Executive Director and National Cigarette Litter Advisory Board member, Adam Roberts explained, "The Commission has been deeply involved in the reduction of litter and specifically cigarette litter for many years resulting in national and State awards. We have studied the effect of signage in the City of Hot Springs, on City and County roads, and most recently on the Martin Luther Bypass. Every study so far has shown that smokers want to do the right thing and correctly dispose of this litter. All they need is the correct tools to do this and preferably a reminder near the point of disposal in some cases."

The Commission has seen reductions in city streets as high as seventy nine percent, roads and highways in the high sixty percent; in fact there studies have never failed to reduce cigarette litter by less than half! These reductions are very important as cigarette litter is the most common form of litter encountered in litter pick up programs, not just in Arkansas, but also all around the world.

For more information please call: (501) 655-2161, e-mail: adamrobertshsgcbc@msn.com or go to www.HotSpringsGreen.org.