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Is It Time for a Tobacco-free Military?

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus recently announced that he wanted to end tobacco sales on all Navy installations.Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, citing both financial costs and tobacco's harmful effects on readiness, added that military tobacco policy in general should be reviewed, including the possibility of ending tobacco sales and establishing smoke-free military installations.Currently, a Department of Defense review of the tobacco issue is under way, 5 years after the Institute of Medicine called for a tobacco-free military.1 Military personnel are required to pass fitness tests, undergo periodic drug tests, and meet weight and body-composition standards or face disciplinary action, including possible discharge.Yet despite the underlying expectations for superlative fitness -and despite the availability of state-of-the-art tobacco-cessation programs -many military personnel still use tobacco, and its use remains accepted, accommodated, and promoted in the armed forces.Why?

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

DOI: 10.1056/nejmp1405976