Education program about tobacco for medical students.

Tobacco smoking is one of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in the worldwide. By the year 2030, more than four million people per year worldwide will die of tobacco-related cause. No other consumer product is as dangerous as many people. Tobacco causes more deaths than any other dependence-producing substances, e.g. poor diet, alcohol, bacterial infections, poisoning, firearms, and illicit drugs. The morbidity and the mortality associated with tobacco use is caused by several toxic substances (e.g. nicotine, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, aza-arenes, N-nitrosamines, aromatic amines, acrylonitrile, crotonaldehyde, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, benzene, inorganic compounds). Tobacco smoking is a major independent risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), cancer (lung, larynx, pharynx, oesophagus, pancreas, kidney, urinary bladder, nasal cavity, uterine cervix), coronary heart disease (CHD) and reproduction. In 2004 42% of Polish man and 23% Polish women smoked. This publication presents a program that has been designed to educate medical students (fourth or fifth year) about tobacco in University of Medical Sciences. There are two parts in total six hours education. Part I is concerned with the epidemiology of smoking, the toxicology of tobacco smoke, the health effects of tobacco use, the process of smoking cessation, the treatment for smokers, and smoking prevention. Part II (workshops) deals with teaching medical students how to motivate patients to stop smoking. The second part consist of: identifying the smoker, taking a smoking history, evaluation of the level of dependence and assessing the smoker's readiness to stop smoking, motivating smokers to change, and preventing relapse. Both parts (theory and practical sessions), are scheduled to take three hours each.