Day is dedicated to helping smokers give up habit
By Margaret Behm
Staff writer
Today health aides and friends of smokers
are hoping to adopt a smoker and encourage him
or her to quit as part of the Great American
Smokeout.
Becky Stewart worked at the Great American
Smokeout booth sponsored by the University
Health Center in the Nebraska Union on
Wednesday. Stewart is one of 87 health aides at
the booth Wednesday and today.
Stewart has been smoking a pack to a pack
and a half of cigarettes per day for several years
and plans to quit smoking permanently today.
“I’m quitting because I know smoking is bad
for me,” said Stewart, a junior psychology and
pre-physical therapy major. “I know I need to
quit now before I get more addicted and it’s hard
er to quit.”
Andy Link, marketing coordinator of the
Health Center and instructor of the Smoking
Cessation class that will begin in the fall of2000,
said Stewart is not alone in her tobacco use.
“Dejjending on what research you look at, 20
to 29 percent of the students that attend this uni
versity smoke,” Link said. “That’s (5,000) to
6,000 students, and we have the possibility to
create better health for their future.”
Students can adopt a smoker at the union
booth. The smoker receives adoption papers and
survival kits, including stickers, buttons and a tip
sheet to help them quit. Last year, 237 smokers
were adopted, said Jennifer Snyder, who works at
the Health Center.
“A lot of times all it takes is someone to help
you out to quit smoking,” Snyder said. “It’s better
because it’s a team effort so the smoker isn’t
alone.”
Snyder encouraged students to adopt a smok
er because smoking is not a healthy habit. It
affects everyone because even secondhand
smoke can be harmful, she said.
“If you’re concerned about your health and
the health of your friends, you should help peo
ple quit smoking,” Snyder said. “That will make
this a healthier university.”
Stewart tried to quit last summer, but it only
lasted a week. With the help of her friends, she
said she is confident that this time she’ll quit for
good.
“I’m more serious this time,” Stewart said.
“Plus a lot of my close friends are trying to quit,
too, and that helps a lot.”
Stewart decided to quit because of the
expense of smoking. Smoking a pack of ciga
rettes a day, at about $3 a pack, equals more than
66
If you’re concerned about your health and the health of
your friends, you should help people quit smoking. That
will make this a healthier university.”
Jennifer Snyder
University Health Center worker
$ 1,000 per year, she said.
Stewart also decided to quit because of the
health risks. Eighty percent of lung cancer is a
result of smoking, according to the American
Cancer Society’s Web site.
“It’s pretty much guaranteed that smokers
will see the effects of their smoking in their
future,” Link said.
Smoking-related diseases killed 462,938
Americans in 1998; that was more than car acci
dents, homicide and alcohol-related deaths com
bined, said Dana Dyksterhuis, public relations
specialist for the American Cancer Society.
If a person stops smoking before cancer
develops, the damaged lung tissue starts to grad
ually return to normal; when a smoker quits, the
risk of getting lung cancer is half that of people
who continue to smoke, according to the
American Cancer Society.
“The sooner you quit, the more years you
truly add to your life,” Dyksterhuis said.
“Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved
if people stop smoking.”
The American Cancer Society is using the
Great American Smokeout as an opportunity to
also educate youth about the dangers of smok
ing, Dyksterhuis said.
This is important because although smoking
among adults decreased from 21 to 14 percent in
1998, smoking among adolescents is on the rise,
Dyksterhuis said.
“An event like the Great American Smokeout
gives students an excuse to quit,” Dyksterhuis
said. “Sometimes all it takes is a reason to quit.”
ITI employees received
no notice before closing
■ Former employees will
get one last paycheck;
company was not legally
required to give notice.
By Sara Salkeld
Staff writer
No advance notice was given to
the 71 people who lost their jobs in
Lincoln last Friday when Lincoln’s
Idelman Telemarketing Incorporated
unexpectedly closed its doors.
ITI is a telemarketing firm owned
by APAC Customer Services in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The Lincoln office at 809 P St.
closed because of a decline in its
number of clients, which has caused
some employees to head for the
unemployment office.
David Reiners, manager of
Corporate Communications for
APAC, said the company was not
legally required to give the employ
ees any notice.
The Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification Act protects
companies only if they have 100 or
more employees, Reiners said. With
only 71 employees, the company was
not required to give any notice.
The reason for this location’s
closing was because there was a
“need to consolidate operations into
Omaha due to capacity, issues,”
Reiners said. The number of hours
worked by employees compared with
the amount of money ITI-Lincoln’s
clients were bringing in was not
enough.
Reiner said ITI’s employees were
encouraged to commute to the
Omaha ITI office. He said if they
chose to relocate, no seniority would
be lost. APAC is offering no com
muter compensation.
Former employee Topher
Chamley’s impression of the unem
ployment situation was slightly dif
ferent.
He said there was no encourage
ment to transfer to Omaha. He also
said those who did change locations
would be able to keep their benefits
but all seniority would be lost.
The former employees would,
however, receive one more paycheck.
This will be a two-week paycheck
based on the average time worked in
the past 12 weeks.
While commuting may be an
option for some, Chamley estimated
about 10 percent of the employees
were students.
Chamley said there were no num
bers for ITI employees to call last
week, meaning there was no work.
On Friday, two separate meetings
were held, one each for the day and
night shifts.
During these meetings, a letter
was given to each employee,
explained in about 10 minutes, and
ITI employees left as former employ
ees, Chamley said.
The letter given to the employees
said little more than the situation was
out of the company’s control, and it
wished it could have told the employ
ees sooner.
For Chamley, that meant he head
ed straight for the unemployment
office. He said there had been a lot of
people in the unemployment office
from ITI.
Chamley, who had worked for ITI
for almost three years, said dejected
ly: “It’s just in time for the holidays.”
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