Twenty five years of antismoking movement started by medical students: some further goals

Twenty five years ago, medical students of the former Yugoslavia accepted an idea that emerged from the Medical School in Tuzla to carry out a national preventive campaign "January 31st, a Day without Cigarette". This campaign was soon recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of "the most successful preventive achievement of medical students in Europe". The only contribution that the government made was printing and releasing a postal stamp on January 31st, 1990. During the war in Bosnia, the UN sanctions imposed to Serbia, and the NATO bombing campaign of the F.R. Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro) weakened this antismoking campaign. At the time of the civil war in several Yugoslav republics, more citizens, including children and youth, started to smoke than in previous years. In 2002, January 31st was proclaimed as the National Antismoking Day in Serbia and the "Republic of Srpska" in Bosnia & Herzegovina; the Republic of Slovenia, and to a smaller extent the rest of the "Bosnian Federation", continued to observe this antismoking campaign. In the future, the medical professionals have to look for new ways to help smokers quit smoking and to maintain abstinence. In addition to education and professional advice, they may use smoking cessation interventions, especially to smokers that require elective surgery. Medical students should continue to participate in the national antismoking campaigns, and they could be included in the comprehensive smoking intervention programs to improve their smoking cessation counseling skills. However, the governments should plan and rigorously realize needed measures to control smoking at public places, offices, and other closed working places. Such measures are especially needed in poor and developing countries where many people die unnecessarily.