The impacts of tobacco litter on the environment and of cigarettes on the human body will be addressed at a UP4Health Challenge Event titled “Nine Lives of a Cigarette Butt.” This free event will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, in the second-floor atrium of Lydia Olson Library at Northern Michigan University. Light refreshments will be served. 

Madelyn Ek, Superior Watershed Partnership self-sufficiency educator, will discuss the ecological and environmental effects of tobacco litter in and around Lake Superior. She is an NMU alumna who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, with a concentration in renewable energy technologies and a minor in sustainability. The Superior Watershed Partnership will also host a UP4Health Challenge volunteer beach cleanup at 4:30 that afternoon at McCarty’s Cove Lighthouse.

Dr. Kevin Piggot, who is board certified in family medicine and preventive medicine, will discuss the impacts of cigarettes on the human body. He is semi-retired after 30 years in clinical practice, hospital administration, public health and medical education.

Marquette County Achieve, NMU’s Lydia Olson Library and the NMU Tobacco-free Committee are co-sponsoring the presentations with UP4Health Challenge.