Numbers in the news

49

As of last year, the US derived 49 percent of its electricity from coal-fired generating plants.

There are 2,113 coal mines in production, yielding an annual average of 1.2 billion tons, with 123,000 people employed as miners.

65

A survey conducted by the Kane Republican found that 65 percent of readers favor the proposed statewide smoking ban in public places.

150,000

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation now has 150,000 members and 10,000 active volunteers. RMEF continues to deepen its involvement in Elk and Cameron counties, especially since the Game Commission established a controlled elk hunt.

Nationwide, RMEF has helped to open about 500,000 acres to pubic recreation and has funded habitat improvement on approximately 5 million acres.

1.5

According to the National Sleep Foundation, school-aged children get an average of 1.5 hours less than the recommended 10 to 11 hours of sleep per night on school nights. Only 20 percent of adolescents get the recommended nine hours of sleep per night on school nights. In fact, nearly half of all adolescents sleep less than eight hours on school nights.

Children who get less than eight hours of sleep are twice as likely than their peers who get optimal sleep to get lower grades.

About 28 percent of high school students report falling asleep in school; 22 percent report falling asleep while doing homework; 14 percent report arriving late or missing school entirely because they oversleep.

Nearly three-quarters of those adolescents who report feeling unhappy, sad, or depressed also report not getting enough sleep at night and being excessively sleepy during the day. While 35 percent of middle school students report getting an optimal amount of sleep on school nights, only 9 percent of high school students do. Despite all those numbers, 90 percent of parents believe their adolescent gets enough sleep.

206

Residents of the City of St. Marys and Ridgway Township recycled 206 tons of solid waste in 2006. Without recycling in place, the material would have been trucked to landfills.

Of the amount, 100 tons of glass were recycled, 35 tons of newsprint, 17 tons of aluminum cans and nearly 14 tons of plastic bottles.

77.9

A baby born in the US this year can be expected to live for 77.9 years. That ranks our nation 42nd in life expectancy worldwide.

This is despite the presence of top-quality medical care. Experts say that care is not available to many due to economics and geography. Additionally, Americans lead a less healthy lifestyle than the people of many other nations, with lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, smoking, alcohol abuse and exposure to harmful chemicals as the leading causes of illness.

120

Sheetz in Emporium goes through an average of 120 pots of coffee on a typical weekday between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.