OTTUMWA —
When you talk about tobacco use, you either like it or you don’t. You can think of it emotionally, from a factual point of view or from a financial point of view. Whatever way you choose to look at it, the data is clear.
Emotionally, far too many people can tell you about their family members who have suffered from the health cost of using tobacco. My father died from lung cancer six weeks before my 17th birthday, just before I started my senior year at Ottumwa High School. Instead of being a fun last year at OHS, it was the start of a sad year. He never saw me graduate, get married or hold my children in his arms.
The facts are clear. In Iowa, 4,400 adults die each year from their own tobacco use; 66,000 kids now under 18 and alive in Iowa will ultimately die prematurely from smoking; 3,800 kids under 18 become new daily smokers each year in Iowa. If you smoke cheap cigarettes at $4.50 a pack, smoking one pack a day for a year will cost you $1,643. Most cigarettes cost a lot more than that now. The tobacco industry spends $82.7 million a year on marketing in Iowa to advertise their product. Published research studies have found that kids are twice as sensitive to tobacco advertising than adults and are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure. There are so many ways to look at what tobacco does, but the bottom line is that no one can afford to smoke or use tobacco in any form. It can break you financially before it literally kills you.
Nov. 15 was the Great American Smokeout. If you missed out, you can still quit for the day, take a good look at the cost of tobacco in your life and choose to quit. If you try and then start again, quit again! No matter how many times it takes, don’t give up. Make it a goal to be a nonsmoker. Take back your life from all the habits and rituals of using tobacco. Anyway, no one likes standing outside in the freezing cold or pouring rain to continue a habit that can kill them!
Cynthia Glasford
tobacco prevention specialist
Ottumwa
Obituaries
November 22, 2012
Far too many can tell about tobacco’s cost
- Obituaries
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- Robert Moffet OSKALOOSA — Robert Moffet, 83, of Oskaloosa died May 23, 2013, at the MHP Emergency Room in Oskaloosa. He was born July 16, 1929 in rural Mahaska County, the son of Albert and Bertha Wassenhoven Moffet. Early in life he worked on the family farm. O
- Martha Burtlow HEDRICK — Martha Burtlow, 79, of Hedrick, died May 24, 2013 at Serenity House in Oskaloosa. Services are pending at the Fremont Funeral Chapel.
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Ellen Buck
EDDYVILLE — Ellen Ruth Buck, 80, of 507 Vance St., died May 23, 2013 at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. She was born Jan. 31, 1933 in Ottumwa to Clarence and Mollie Nelson Eaves. She married Arthur M. Buck on Nov. 15, 1976. El
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Florence Voss
OSKALOOSA — Florence Lillian Voss, 88, of Oskaloosa, died May 19, 2013 at the MHP Hospice Serenity House in Oskaloosa. She was born Sept. 16, 1924 in Estherville the daughter of Fredrick and Lavina McFadden Newman. She attended school at Ottumwa Hig
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Emogene Olinger
OTTUMWA — Emogene Elaine Olinger, 88, formerly of 118 S. Union St., died at 10:55 a.m. May 23, 2013 at The Good Samaritan Society-Ottumwa She was born Dec. 4, 1924 in Ottumwa to Cornelius and Minnie Morgan Hourihan. She married James Olinger on Oct
- Mary Knowles ALBIA — Mary Catherine Knowles, 65, of Albia, died May 23, 2013 under the care of Monroe County Hospice at her home in Albia. A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Albia; Fr. Michael E. Volkmer, C.PP.S. o
- Emogene Olinger OTTUMWA — Emogene E. Olinger, 88, formerly of 118 S. Union St., died at 10:55 a.m. May 23, 2013 at The Good Samaritan Society-Ottumwa. Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Sunday at Reece Funeral Home with Emogene's daughter-in-law, Rev. Donna Olinger of
- Sylvia Adams SIGOURNEY — Sylvia Adams, 94, of Sigourney, died May 21, 2013 at Sigourney Care Center. Funeral arrangements are pending with Powell Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Sigourney.
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Earl Horras
RICHLAND — Earl Bernard Horras, 77, of Richland, died May 21, 2013, at St Luke’s Hospice Center in Cedar Rapids. He was born at home on May 29, 1935, in rural Keokuk County to Walter and Edna (Sieren) Horras. He lived in Keokuk, Washington and Jeffe
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Elsie Simpson
OTTUMWA — H. Elsie Simpson, 88, formerly of 118 Grand Ave., and of Prairie Hills Assisted Living, died at 10:22 p.m. May 22, 2013 at Hospice House in Ottumwa. She was born June 3, 1924 in Albia; the daughter of A. Harold and Grace Maude Ryun Fry. Sh
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