Jump to full article: Stars & Stripes, 2009-08-09
Author: Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Sunday, August 9, 2009
Intro: Calls for a ban on tobacco use in the military — a habit that medical experts say saps servicemember health and drains billions in public dollars annually — are growing loud this summer, but the fate of any new regulation is uncertain at best.
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The DOD will consider the tobacco recommendations — including immediate bans for new officers and enlisted personnel enforced by urine testing — when it convenes its Medical and Personnel Council in a few months, Smith said.
The board could eventually make tobacco-use recommendations to the secretary of defense. New regulations would require the cooperation of the U.S. Congress, according to the Institute of Medicine.
Sgt. Fred Pedro, an Army recruiter in Albany, N.Y., said the policy of no tobacco in basic training already makes some potential recruits hesitate, and a military-wide ban — enforced by urine testing — could turn off even more prospective enlistees. . . .
The Institute of Medicine and the American Lung Association both back a phased-in elimination of tobacco beginning with a ban on all use among those entering the military.
Both groups also said military tobacco sales are a barrier to cutting use and should be curbed. . . .
So far, nobody has called a ban on tobacco use at West Point, but the anti-tobacco message is pushed to cadets throughout their time at the academy, Polao said.
The result is older cadets tend to make the decision to abstain from smoking and tobacco — and pressure younger cadets to do the same, she said.
Studies indicate enlisted servicemembers are more likely to use tobacco, and some in the enlisted ranks baulk at a ban.
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