CIGARETTES: There are fewer cigarette butts at Kinzua Bridge State Park.
The park participated in the 2017 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, which Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful conducted using a grant from the national Keep America Beautiful organization.
“The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program consists of an initial scan or count of cigarette butts, the installation of cigarette butt receptacles and a follow-up scan and final scan of cigarette butts,” according to Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.
The state organization reported a 79 percent reduction of cigarette butts after the receptacles were installed.
That 79 percent reduction was the overall percentage for the six participating parks. Other participants besides Kinzua were Cooks Forest, Clear Creek, Maurice K. Goddard, Ohiopyle and Raccoon Creek.
The first scan produced 4,566 cigarette butts, and the follow-up scan produced 966. A final scan is set for May 2018.
A study by Keep America Beautiful found that tobacco products were the most littered item in America.
OCT. 14: The Associate Press shared a few of the noteworthy events that happened this day in history.
“On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. (“Chuck”) Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.”
Five years ago, “Yeager, at the age of 89, marked the 65th anniversary of his supersonic flight by smashing through the sound barrier again, this time in the backseat of an F-15 which took off from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.”
Also on this day in history:
• In 1926, “Winnie-the-Pooh” by A.A. Milne was first published by Methuen & Co. of London.
• In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was toppled from power; he was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier.
• In 1977, singer Bing Crosby died outside Madrid, Spain, at age 74.
