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Smoke free and chewing free jogging trail set up in Southern Taiwan

  • Viewer:Viewer:1968
  • Modify Date:Modify Date:2015/01/29
  • Publish Date:Publish Date:2012/10/15
Ying-Liang Chen (陳盈良), Head of Wei-Guo neighborhood, East District of Tainan City in Taiwan, created a smoke free and betel nut free jogging trail to promote the awareness of residents toward tobacco hazards and improve their health. His father had suffered from the effects of long-term smoking and betel nut chewing.

  Most of the community residents are elders, and nearly half of them smoked and chewed betel nut. Some have already developed oral cancer and lung cancer, said Ying-Liang Chen, whose father slowly recovered his health after he quit smoking and betel nut chewing. Now he developed the habit of jogging.

  Chen built a smoke-free and betel nut free jogging track for residents to enjoy  exercise and a fresh and clean environment

  The 130-meter long trail, painted with no-smoking and no chewing signs on the surface of trail, surrounds the community’s activity center. An energy exchange table was displaced at the start of the trail for joggers to calculate their calories expended. For example, a person who weighs 50kg can burn 60 calories, while a person who weighs 80kg can burn 95 calories. It would take 190 steps to complete the trail.

  The Wei-Guo neighborhood also assigned volunteer patrols to monitor smoking and chewing behavior and reduce littering of cigarette butts and spitting of betel nut, so that residents can exercise and live in a cleaner and healthier community.