Tar Wars
North Dakota Kids Learn the Dangers of Tobacco Use
from UND Medical Students
The identifiable theme from the Star Wars movies fills the room and text begins to scroll up the screen:
“We are fighting a war against an unrelenting power. A power of strong soldiers we cannot see or hear. A power that can be defeated with a special army...of knowledgeable and informed students like you!”
Medical students from the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences taught the benefits of a tobacco-free life to fourth- and fifth-graders throughout the state this winter.
Through “Tar Wars,” a tobacco-free education program for kids from the American Academy of Family Physicians, nearly 90 members of the UND chapter of Doctors Ought to Care (DOC) split into teams and headed to schools across the state to explain the health hazards and economic cost of smoking.
Battle against a health crisis
Every day more than 4,000 children will try a cigarette for the first time, According to the American Academy of Family Physicians. More than 4.5 million children younger than 18 are currently regular smokers in the U.S.
It was because of this health crisis that Tar Wars was started nearly 20 years ago. Now presented annually to about 500,000 fourth- and fifth-grade students in all 50 states, the program focuses on the short-term, image-based consequences of tobacco use and how to think critically about tobacco advertising.
“What percent of fourth- and fifth-graders do you think are tobacco-free?” Dane Breker, a second-year medical student asks the group gathered in the cafeteria of Viking Elementary School in Grand Forks.
“Hopefully all,” one voice says.
“Ninety-eight percent,” reveals Breker. “How many ninth graders do you think are tobacco free?”
After a flurry of responses, Breker tells the group that 78 percent of ninth-graders and 77 percent of adults choose to be tobacco free.
“Why do you think kids start to smoke?” he asks.
“To be cool,” comes one response.
“They were dared to,” says another.
Another voice from the back of the room is heard. “They are a follower.”
“Good,” replies Breker. “What can happen to you if you smoke?”
“You will die,” says one.
“You can lose a lung or get a hole in your neck,” cracks a wise guy in the far right corner.
“You could lose your singing voice,” a quiet girl on the left peeps.
“You could lose your friends,” chimes in another.
During the presentation, students participate in a live demonstration of the long-term effects of cigarette use. Each one is given a straw and the entire group does jumping jacks while breathing only through the straw.
The difficultly the children have breathing through the straw is what it is like to breathe when you have been smoking for a long time, Breker explains to them.
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| At the end of the UND medical students’ presentation, each kid received a “UND Smoke Free” armband to help them remember what they learned. |
Each student also has the chance to participate in a poster contest aimed at portraying a positive message for remaining smoke-free. A state winner will be selected to win a trip to Washington, DC, paid for by the North Dakota Academy of Family Physicians and other contributors, where they will present their poster at a national competition. The winner of the national event receives a free trip to Disneyland.
“We are happy to support this wonderful effort to get out the word about a leading cause of distress on our national health,” said Chuck Breen, M.D. (’90, family practice residency ’93) president of the North Dakota Academy of Family Physicians and clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at the UND medical school. “Tar Wars is a great way to teach our children and subsequently our adults the reasons to quit or to never start smoking.”
Tar warriors on the western front
For the first time this year, third-year medical students spread the Tar Wars message to the western part of North Dakota.
Previously, the first- and second-year medical students presented the Tar Wars program to schools in the Grand Forks area. Demanding schedules and distance from the main campus prevented third-year DOC members from doing the program in their clinical communities, said third-year student Justin Reisenauer.
“I am a strong advocate of the anti-tobacco message,” said Reisenauer, who arranged for Tar Wars to expand this year. “I was the president of DOC last year, and truly wanted to spread the anti-tobacco message to the children of western North Dakota.”
Several volunteers from his third-year class stepped forward and gave the anti-tobacco presentation to students in the communities of Hettinger, Jamestown, Williston and Bismarck.
“Tar Wars is a wonderful program,” said Reisenauer. “Ultimately, DOC goes one step further by discussing tobacco use in families, describing peer pressure, brainstorming with the children on ways to deal with peer pressure, and advocating a smoke free lifestyle.”
Amanda Scurry
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