Students tackle community health hazard

After cleaning up more than 150,000 illegally dumped tires in Luna County, New Mexico State University students are now using community education to ensure the area remains clear.

Community health workers – promotoras – and students survey the community, gathering vital information. Bilingual posters and calendars, warning of health hazards, are distributed in Deming. In addition, Larry Olsen, associate dean of the College of Health and Social Services, and his graduate students have developed a series of environmental health lessons that they hope will be implemented as part of the middle school health curriculum this spring.

The project began last spring semester because rainwater was collecting in the tires, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes and increasing the risk of dengue fever and West Nile virus. From January until May, students and faculty spent most of their Saturdays cleaning up the huge eyesore, moving the tires to a site where they were formed into bales.

Olsen and Robert Czerniak, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, worked with students and the Luna County Road Department on the cleanup.

“This is a perfect example where students from the university, combined with county people, work with grant money in a far-reaching project that could have great implications as far as the health of our community,” Olsen said.

The project has been presented at national meetings of the American Public Health Association and the Southwest District of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. An overview of the project will be presented in June at the international meeting of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.