Ban on tobacco urged in military

[almaty 19]

WASHINGTON — Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.

Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

The study by the Institute of Medicine, requested by the VA and Pentagon, calls for a phased-in ban over a period of years, perhaps up to 20. "We'll certainly be taking that recommendation forward," Smith says.

A tobacco ban would confront a military culture, the report says, in which "the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet, fighting for his country, has frequently included his lit cigarette."

Also, the report said, troops worn out by repeated deployments often rely on cigarettes as a "stress reliever." The study found that tobacco use in the military increased after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the department supports a smoke-free military "and believes it is achievable." She declined to elaborate on any possible ban.

One in three servicemembers use tobacco, the report says, compared with one in five adult Americans. The heaviest smokers are soldiers and Marines, who have done most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the study says. About 37% of soldiers use tobacco and 36% of Marines. Combat veterans are 50% more likely to use tobacco than troops who haven't seen combat.

Tobacco use costs the Pentagon $846 million a year in medical care and lost productivity, says the report, which used older data. The Department of Veterans Affairs spends up to $6 billion in treatments for tobacco-related illnesses, says the study, which was released late last month.

Along with a phased-in ban, the report recommends requiring new officers and enlisted personnel to be tobacco-free, eliminating tobacco use on military installations, ships and aircraft, expanding treatment programs and eliminating the sale of tobacco on military property. "Any tobacco use while in uniform should be prohibited," the study says.

The military complicates attempts to curb tobacco use by subsidizing tobacco products for troops who buy them at base exchanges and commissaries, says Kenneth Kizer, a committee member and architect of California's anti-tobacco program.

Seventy percent of profits from tobacco sales — $88 million in 2005 — pays for recreation and family support programs, the study stays.

Strong leadership could make the military tobacco-free in five to 10 years, Kizer says. President Obama, he says, could set an example for the military by ending his own smoking habit once and for all. Last month, Obama said he is "95% cured" but "there are times when I mess up" and smoke.

[Nagishkaw 510]

GTFO.

[Otto 83]

Good Grief...!

Even the tip of the sword of freedom gets none...

[almaty 19]

no doubt, when i was in the army..i smoke and at time the only stress relief available..

[NickD 203]

Good Grief...!

Even the tip of the sword of freedom gets none...

Still not even hinting at the major sources of cancer in this country, the automobile, trucks, airlines, ships, asbestos used in brakes and clutches, but most of that is being phased out. Plus industrial and home burning of fossil fuels, burning wood is a killer, they keep all that quiet, the hypocrites.

[almaty 19]

Good Grief...!

Even the tip of the sword of freedom gets none...

Still not even hinting at the major sources of cancer in this country, the automobile, trucks, airlines, ships, asbestos used in brakes and clutches, but most of that is being phased out. Plus industrial and home burning of fossil fuels, burning wood is a killer, they keep all that quiet, the hypocrites.

you make excellent points htere, brother nick.. my friend, herman, use to burn wood all his life and developed some spots on his lungs from it...and the other areas are spot on

[almaty 19]

asibenote..my son has been to iraq for a year and in a week or so..off to afghanistan./....no etoh allowed...

so after a hard day of freedom fighting and terorist/taliban azz kicking..a warrior wants to smoke a Camel...since a beer is not allwoed

[Nagishkaw 510]

I have had patients who had lung cancer and never smoked a day in their lives.

[almaty 19]

my dad best friend died of it and never smoked./.my grandfather..lived to be 95...smoked since age 9..and drank...

shot by a jealous husband

[HAL 9000 96]

asibenote..my son has been to iraq for a year and in a week or so..off to afghanistan./....no etoh allowed...

so after a hard day of freedom fighting and terorist/taliban azz kicking..a warrior wants to smoke a Camel...since a beer is not allwoed

That's gotta suck...

On the bright side... imagine that liver of his getting cleaned up.

[NickD 203]

Basics are tobacco is normally burned that does have some undesirable byproducts, but the question remains, outside of nuclear fission energy what else is burned and what about their byproducts? And what are the ratios of the different products burned in huge quantity? Willing to bet that tobacco is way on the bottom of the list. Aren't similar substances burnt in a forest fire? Consumers Report did have an article a few years back about living next door to a wood burning, claimed in their tests, you and your kids were smoking the equivalent of 25 packs of cigarettes a day. Yet our state that banned smoking in all public places is encouraging people to burn wood to save on fossil fuels.

Biggest joke around here is our smoke free hospital with, we are smoke free signs all over the place. Right in the middle of this complex is an incinerator, bellowing out huge amounts of ugly black smoke.

Hypocrites or idiots running this country, haven't figured out which yet. Like California, no coal burning electrical plants permitted, but okay in Nevada. Today their major source of pollution is from China, our EPA didn't move some of this burning far away enough, someone forgot to tell them China is also a part of this world.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Filthy nasty habit, and I could smell a lit cigarette hundreds of meters away. Giving up the coffin nails would probably make them safer when wandering through the boonies. That said, my only respite from a boring day, was to step outside the barracks, and pollute my lungs in the freezing cold.

[almaty 19]

same is true today...in Nam, you get drunk....smoke some sweet lucy...and pound a mama-san...nowadays, a Lucky is the best you can hope for

[Chica Yeyé 41]

#######?

oh my... charles will not be pleased

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Banning the sale on military bases makes sense, and even banning smoking within certain areas, but an outright ban on tobacco is too extreme, IMO.