By S. Wade Hansen
Citizens of former communist countries have received a lot of trends from the United States: blue jeans, rock ”n” roll and cigarettes.
“American companies have captured about three-fourths of the cigarette market in the Ukraine,” said Gordon Lindsay, chairman of the College of Health Sciences.
“We surveyed one square kilometer in downtown Kiev. Ninety-seven different individuals, places, stores or kiosks were selling cigarettes. You will not find that in America,” he said.
Lindsay led a pioneering group of BYU students and faculty to the Ukraine to assist with anti-smoking programs last summer.
“In the United States, there are all kinds of resources for a person who wants to quit smoking,” Lindsay said.
Eastern European countries do not have the same resources.
BYU students involved with the project worked on remedies for the lack of anti-smoking information in these countries. They spent time translating American Cancer Society materials into Russian for use in presentations made to physicians and youth groups.
Thirteen of the 19 students are return missionaries and aided the program with their fluency in the language.
The group spent six weeks in the Ukraine and two weeks in Russia. Students spent mornings in class at a university in Kiev and afternoons implementing their program.
The students and programs received media exposure during their two-month stay.
“We had six news stations covering these American students who were coming over apologizing for the predatory marketing practices of American cigarette companies,” Lindsay said.
American cigarette companies use exaggerated depictions of western culture to advertise their cigarettes.
“It”s really important for people living in the former Soviet Union to look like they”re somehow associated with the west,” said Donald Allison, 27, a senior from Fort Collins, Colo., majoring in Russian and graphic design.
“It”s very prestigious to smoke Marlboro or some sort of American-brand cigarettes,” he said.
Over 12 billion cigarettes are imported to the Ukraine each year, according to the International Tobacco Guide.
“The Lord must sit in the heavens and weep to realize that to make a dollar, we are shifting our health problems onto other people,” Lindsay said.
The World Health Organization projects 500 million people will die from tobacco-related diseases within the next 20 years. The highest concentration of those deaths will occur in eastern European countries.
Lindsay said he plans to take another group of students back to the Ukraine and Russia this summer.
“We”re in it for the long haul in working with these people,” Lindsay said.
The group will leave on June 20 and spend two months furthering the project.
The cost per student for the internship is approximately $1,500 plus airfare. Interns receive six credits for the trip.
Lindsay said he feels the program has made a dent in a huge problem, but there is still a long way to go.
