Be Smart Don't Start
Be Smart Don't Start is a nationwide competition for smoke-free school classes designed to motivate schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 14 not to start smoking in the first place. The competition runs every six months. It took place in Germany for the 23rd time in the 2019/2020 school year and is considered to be the “largest school-based measure of tobacco prevention” in Germany. The most recent nationwide competition for smoke-free school classes took place from November 11, 2019 to April 30, 2020. The project is funded in Germany by the German Cancer Aid Foundation, the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), the AOK Federal Association and numerous public and private institutions and carried out in cooperation with partners from all federal states.
Goals of the competition
One of the goals of the competition is to make the topic of "no smoking" more attractive. It is also hoped to discourage students from experimenting with cigarettes so that casual smokers and non-smokers do not become smokers.
history
The competition originated in Finland in 1989 and took place in Germany for the first time in 1997. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Cancer Aid has actively supported the campaign from the beginning and has since financed information material nationwide from private donations. The aid organization is also doing increased awareness-raising about the dangers of smoking among children and young people. The non-smoking competition “Be Smart - Don't Start” is now also funded by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), the AOK , the German Heart Foundation and the German Lung Foundation, as well as other public and private institutions. Scientific support is provided by the “Institute for Therapy and Health Research” (IFT-Nord) in Kiel.
The action in Germany
In Germany, the Federal Center for Health Education, the German Cancer Aid and the doctor Eckart von Hirschhausen as patron of the competition are calling for participation in "Be Smart - Don't Start". The competition starts on November 11th, registrations of interested school classes are possible until November 9th 2019 at www.besmart.info. Representative studies by the BZgA show that non-smoking is very popular among young people. According to current surveys, the smoking rate has reached an all-time low. Only around 7 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds state that they smoke and more than 80 percent of young people have never tried a cigarette.
The project international
Eighteen countries across Europe are participating in the project. The international name for the project is Smokefree Class Competition - "Smokefree Class Competition". In addition to an international competition, each country also organizes its own competitions with separate price announcements. Some countries also have other eligibility criteria. For example, participating schools in Iceland have to submit a smoke prevention project. In Spain, each class has a slogan to promote non-smoking.
Participating countries
Besides Germany and Switzerland, the traditional participating countries are Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Great Britain. After Germany, Switzerland has so far had the most participants in an international comparison.
procedure
The respective school class can vote for or against the project in a public or secret ballot. Participation can only take place with a consent of 90% or more of the student body. After participating, each student must sign a contract that they will not smoke during the competition period. Once a week the students then state whether they smoke. Only if less than 10% of the students smoke will a confirmation be sent to the competition management at the end of the month. All classes that confirm by the end of the competition and whose proportion of smoking students is less than 10% have the chance to be drawn as winners of a prize. In addition, all classes receive information material when they register. In 2019, the nationwide main prize went to a class in Rhineland-Palatinate: 5,000 euros from the “German Cancer Aid Foundation” for a class trip. In 2020, class 7a of the Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Gymnasium from Schneeberg won the 1st prize of the nationwide competition in the amount of 5,000 euros from funds from the German Cancer Aid,
Projects
The pupils can win extra prizes by creating a project on the subject of “smoking and health” (this can include making films, songs or poems). There are also some local competitions.
Success in school prevention
As early as 2012, the German Cancer Aid and the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) presented an initial long-term balance sheet with the result that tobacco prevention in children and adolescents is very successful. Over a period of 15 years, more than 120,000 school classes with more than three million students took part. According to the Federal Center for Health Education, only 11.7 percent of adolescents smoked in 2011, compared with around 28 percent in 2001. Despite this positive development, education about the dangers of smoking among the population and especially among young people must be increased, given the statistically proven fact that in Germany around 121,000 people die every year as a result of smoking. A third of all cancers are due to smoking alone. An earlier study among 12,812 young people examined the success of the project. The increase in the number of smokers over the period from twelve to 24 months was examined. The study showed that the increase in students who participated in the project was 16.02%. In contrast, the increase in the number of smokers among young people who did not participate in the project was 21.78%.
participation
In the 2007/2008 school year, 11,350 classes with 288,258 students entered the competition in Germany, of which 11,038 were still taking part at the end of March 2008. In Switzerland, 3,629 classes with 66,379 students had registered.
In 2010, these organizations and initiatives in the federal states succeeded in getting around 275,000 students in 10,600 schools to take part in the 13th non-smoking competition in the 2009/2010 school year. Across Europe, around 600,000 schoolchildren from 14 countries took part, according to the German Cancer Aid.
In 2011 the initiators of the 14th competition succeeded in keeping the number of participants stable. In the 2011/2012 school year, a total of 9,887 school classes from all types of school took part in the competition. Of them, 6,663 classes with around 175,000 students managed not to smoke from November 14, 2011 to April 27, 2012. The BZgA also rewards school classes every year who have repeatedly successfully participated in the competition.
- In 2012/2013, school classes from sixth to eighth grades were invited to take part in the nationwide competition “Be Smart - Don't Start” from November 12, 2012 to April 26, 2013 for the 16th time. According to this annual balance, the proportion of successful participants has increased significantly. A total of 74 percent of the classes managed to stay smoke-free. In previous years it was around 66 percent. In the last few years even 75 percent had been achieved. In the school year
- In 2015/2016, 7,512 school classes from all types of schools took part in the competition across Germany. Of these, 5,865 classes, that is 78.1 percent, remained smoke-free from November to April.
- In 2019/2020, 7,248 school classes from all types of schools across Germany took part in “Be Smart - Don't Start”. Of them, 5,985 classes, that is 82.6 percent, remained smoke-free from November to April
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release German Cancer Aid , accessed on June 12, 2018.
- ↑ besmart.info , accessed October 30, 2018.
- ↑ https://www.krebshilfe.de/informieren/presse/pressemitteilungen/aktuelle-meldung/be-smart-dont-start/ accessed on October 29, 2018
- ↑ Progress of the Smokefree Class Competition from 1997 to 2007 ( Memento from June 23, 2007 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Impact of the Smokefree Class Competition ( Memento from November 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on ift-nord.de (English).
- ↑ Reaching the class goal without a cigarette ( memento from November 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), press release of the German Cancer Aid from October 29, 2013, accessed on November 1, 2014
- ↑ German Cancer Aid, joint press release from July 14, 2016