Fritz Lickint
Fritz Balduin Lickint (1 October 1898 – 7 July 1960) was a German internist and social democrat, who investigated scientifically health problems and social problems related to alcohol and tobacco, described in the 1920s cancer of the lung from smoking, and the cancer pathway alongside the respiratory and upper digestive tract. In 1925 he published about an increase of gastric ulcer and stomach cancer in smokers. All his life Lickint was an engaged social democrat and member of the union "social democratic physicians". Because of his political attitude he lost his job at the Chemnitz hospital in 1934, shortly after the Nazis came into power, and was conscripted to military service in 1939 as a basic aidman. Not before 1945 he was able to return to his work as a hospital physician and later became hospital director.[1]
Lickint was one of the first physicians describing physical and psychological tobacco dependence as a disease which needs treatment, suggesting a number of therapies (some of them still in use). He also pointed to the "anti-social behavior of many smokers, polluting ambient air recklessly and harming the health of other people". Lickint created the term "passive smoking". The Nazis usurped these thoughts, but simultaneously supplied soldiers with cigarettes and cooperated with the German tobacco company Reemtsma, also in Austria.[2]
Later the propaganda of the tobacco industry in Austria and Germany traced the origin of the non-smoking movement back to the Nazi time[
Like other doctors at the time, Lickint also experimented with radical approaches to cure cancer such as x-raying the spleens of cancer patients in hopes of producing cancer-fighting hormones. He also coined the term "passive smoking".[9]
In 1999, a research Institut für Nikotinforschung und Raucherentwöhnung ("Institute for nicotine research and smoker dulysis") was founded; previously, there had been no German center for such research[10] since 1945.[11] It was later named the Fritz-Lickint-Institut für Nikotinforschung und Raucherentwöhnung.[11][12]
Notes
- ^ Haustein K.O. (2004): Fritz Lickint (1898-1960) – Ein Leben als Aufklärer über die Gefahren des Tabaks. Suchtmed 6 (3): 249 – 55.
- PMID 17705984.
- ^ a b Proctor 2000, p. 183
- ^ Cornwell 2003, p. 171
- ^ a b Nicosia & Huener 2002, p. 44
- ^ Proctor 2000, p. 184
- ^ Rice & Atkin 2000, p. 316
- ^ Proctor 2000, p. 185
- ^ Proctor 2000, p. 235
- ^ "Institut für Nikotinforschung und Raucherentwöhnung eröffnet". DAZ.online (in German). 7 November 1999.
- ^ a b Haustein, Knut-Olaf (2004). "Fritz Lickint (1898-1960) – Ein Leben als Aufklärer über die Gefahren des Tabaks". Suchtmed (in German). 6 (3). Fritz-Lickint-Institut für Nikotinforschung und Raucherentwöhnung: 249–255. Archived from the original on November 5, 2014.
- ^ "Raucherentwöhnung: Primäre ärztliche Aufgabe". Deutsches Ärzteblatt (in German). Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH. 2002-11-22.
References
- Cornwell, John (2003-10-14). Hitler's scientists: science, war, and the devil's pact. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-03075-0.
- Nicosia, Francis R.; Huener, Jonathan (2002). Medicine and medical ethics in Nazi Germany: origins, practices, legacies. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-57181-387-9.
- Proctor, Robert N. (2 October 2000). The Nazi War on Cancer. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07051-3.
- Rice, Ronald E.; Atkin, Charles K. (17 November 2000). Public communication campaigns. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-7619-2206-3.
Further reading
- Gilman, Sander L.; Zhou, Xun (2004). Smoke: a global history of smoking. Reaktion Books. p. 284. ISBN 978-1-86189-200-3. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- Haustein, Knut-Olaf (2004). "Fritz Lickint (1898-1960) – Ein Leben als Aufklärer über die Gefahren des Tabaks". Suchtmed (in German). 6 (3). Fritz-Lickint-Institut für Nikotinforschung und Raucherentwöhnung: 249–255. Archived from the original on November 5, 2014.