Innovative anti-smoking program founded by JLU medical student Titus Brinker reaches thousands of school children.<\/p>\n
Tobacco is the largest cause of preventable disease and death in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.\u00a0 In Germany alone approximately 380 people die every day from tobacco-related disease, translating to an annual death rate of 140,000.\u00a0 The cost of tobacco use to the German gross national product is enormous, estimated to be more than 40 billion Euros annually.\u00a0 Inspired by these shocking figures, JLU medical student Titus Brinker decided to do something about it.\u00a0 Started as a pilot project by Mr. Brinker in 2011, \u201cAufkl\u00e4rung gegen Tabak\u201d (Education Against Tobacco) now includes 500 participating medical students at 18 universities throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and reached more than 4,000 students during its first year.<\/p>\n
It was during an internship at the American university, Texas A&M that Mr. Brinker developed the idea for \u201cAufkl\u00e4rung gegen Tabak.\u201d\u00a0 At Texas A&M the tobacco prevention program \u201cStand Tall Against Tobacco (STAT)\u201d was shown to have a positive influence on preventing tobacco use in young people.\u00a0 Impressed by the success of STAT, Mr. Brinker developed a program to meet the needs of the German public.\u00a0 The concept is very simple: Medical students visit German elementary schools and provide pupils (7th graders) with information that they can use to make informed decisions about whether or not to use tobacco.\u00a0 Emphasis is placed on disadvantages of tobacco use that students can directly relate to, such as decreased athletic performance, cost, and aesthetics. Furthermore, the medical students organize a painting contest and involve patients from their university hospitals in order to let them tell about their own experiences with tobacco addiction. The relatively small age gap between the medical students and the school children makes it more likely that the pupils will view the medical students as positive role models to whom they can relate.<\/p>\n