Would any of you play Russian roulette, if the revolver was loaded with three bullets? When smoking you have that same 50 percent probability. But in this case the bullet moves significantly slower. Nevertheless, half of all smokers unnecessarily shorten their life during their middle-ages.

 

“The bullet hits long before retirement”, says the speaker of the “ohnekippe” event at the thorax clinic in Heidelberg. “We witness this every day in our clinic”. The lecturer turns the usual noise level of such an event with 100 students into a devout listening auditorium. As he has something to say. (And don’t anyone tell me the smart phone-generation doesn’t listen.) The more so as the lecturer names names and never bores with technical jargon or dry statistics.

 

The thorax clinic Heidelberg hosts this two hour student-seminar twice a week.

 

The student’s answers show the involvement, when the question about the reasons for smoking is answered. Here conversations occur at eye level. Here a generation is emancipated to defy the peer pressure and tricks of the cigarette industry. Shishas and e-cigarettes receive their own just deserts just like the classical model.

The lecturer anecdotally rounds off the remarkable quintessence of the Q&A-session with: “Two more or less identical young men or women receive their school leaving certificate. Once back outside the smoker lights a reward cigarette. Who thinks that the other graduate is going to start smoking too?” That doesn’t stay without an effect. The result shows an increasingly critical attitude of the youth towards smoking.

As the room starts filling up after the brake it shows, why the number of participants is limited to the number of seats.  An interactive tour leads us to one of the clinics endoscopy rooms. Effortlessly, experienced and downright  cool the doctor practicing the endoscopy explains to the adolescent audience what is happening. Not saying too much or too little.

 

And that’s how it stays, when she takes us along on an endoscopic trip through the lung of an anesthetized patient.  The medical high-tech atmosphere however doesn’t affect the audience’s involvement. The student’s facial expressions show it all. The already pronounced interest rises dramatically. Half of the bodies slide noticeably lower into the seats and at distinct parts of the rapid camera work, fingernails claw into the forearms of male seating neighbors. Those who can’t reach anyone, may even hold their hands in front of their eyes. No one needs to see anything more drastic than the moment, where the endoscope camera comes across the bloody tumor tissue inside of the surprisingly aesthetic trachea canal. Pictures often say more than a thousand words.

 

At the end, after an interview, one of the clinics patients, who suffers from a smoking related disease, openly answers the student’s questions.

 

Our conclusion: The cigarette mafia has found a worthy opponent. Hats off to the kids. It is filled with lots of potential.

 

The „Ohne-Kippe“-App

The „Ohne-Kippe“-Song

For the tenth anniversary of without-cigarette students went to the Pop-academy in Mannheim and composed and wrote the lyrics to a song called “short trip” with the theme not smoking.

 

In the last year about 10,000 students were able to be taught about the dangers of smoking in the thorax clinic. The prevention program for teens especially targets six to eight graders.

You like her, my casual nature

and the way I move

my mouth and hand.

But that fog,

that constantly surrounds me,

you want more of me,

you want to see more of me.

You follow my track and sneak up on me,

closer and closer.

 

I creep through your pores,

deep into your lungs

and you’re burning.

More than you realize.

I got you and I’m sucking

onto your lips, lips, lips.

You like it dangerous,

then play my game.

We race each other,

 

a short trip to paradise.

I cuddle up to your hand.

Yes. Play the game, as long as you can.

You ask, how long until we arrive

and I answer: Heads or tails?

If it’s heads, it falls into the ditch.

Without risk, there is no game

and I bet your days are numbered.

 

I creep through your pores,

deep into your lungs

and you’re burning.

More than you realize.

I got you and I’m sucking

onto your lips, lips, lips.

You like it dangerous,

then play my game.

We race each other,

a short trip to paradise.

 

I creep through your pores,

deep into your lungs

and you’re burning.

More than you realize.

I got you and I’m sucking onto

your lips, lips, lips.

You like it dangerous,

then play my game.

We race each other,

 

 a short trip to paradise.

 

 

(© Nora Götting, Zoe Meissner,

Johann Seifert, Stefan Wiedmer)