It Figures

84,000

The Arkansas Department of Health says the state had 84,000 fewer smokers in 2007 than five years earlier. Officials say that since 2002, the percentage of adults who smoked dropped from 26.3 percent to 22.4 percent, according to an Associated Press report. The drop in the state’s smoking rate was attributed in part to the state’s ban on smoking in workplaces and increased awareness of the dangers of smoking. In a special session in 2006, the state approved a ban on smoking in workplaces, including restaurants. Since then, several universities and colleges in the state have banned tobacco use on campus.

7%

U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of their annual revenues to fraud — but damages are more among small businesses, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). The median loss suffered by organizations with fewer than 100 employees was $200,000, higher than the median loss for any other category among fraud cases detailed in an ACFE survey. Check tampering and fraudulent billing were the most common fraud schemes.

$25

Alabama state employees suffering from obesity and three other health problems will pay an extra $25 per month for their health insurance if they don’t try to control their problems, according to the Associated Press. Beginning in 2010, state workers will be charged the fee if they don’t have a free health screening. If they have the screening and no problems are shown, they won’t have to pay in the future. If the screening turns up problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity, employees will have one year to see a doctor, enroll in a wellness program or take other steps to improve their health. If they don’t, they will have to pay the $25 per month.

7% to 10%

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a 7 to 10 percent chance in the next 50 years of an earthquake similar in intensity to the New Madrid quakes that rocked Memphis, St. Louis and other cities hundreds of miles away nearly 200 years ago, the Associated Press reported. The odds increase to more than 50 percent for an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater over the next five decades, geologic engineering professor Dave Rogers of Missouri University of Science and Technology told an audience of scientists, military officers and emergency responders from states in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.