2009-07-10 14:06:56 - Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), America's first antismoking organization, strongly supports a recommendation today that the military ban all smoking, but urges that it be done in 2 rather than 20 years, citing both precedent and advantages beyond those cited by the military.

www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-07-09-smoking_N.htm

"Tens of thousands of U.S. corporations and governmental bodies, including even the W.H.O., now mandate that their personnel be smoke free as well as drug free.

The results have been an enormous saving in health care costs, loss of productivity, savings on disability and retirement, time lost from work, and other costs, as well as a healthier and more productive work force, says Prof. John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH.

Also, even in many prisons -- whether the stress levels can be higher than in the military, and problems of compliance and enforcement are far more severe -- bans on smoking has been implemented over periods measured in months, not years as the Pentagon report suggests.

With military smoking costing the American

taxpayer almost $7 billion a year in health care costs and loss of productivity, it's high time the military overcame its long addiction to tobacco," argues Banzhaf.

In addition to slashing costs and improving the overall fitness of our troops, a tobacco ban is likely to make all soldiers safer in several ways, says Banzhaf. Soldiers who depend on cigarettes are likely to light up while on night duty, a move which jeopardizes their lives, as well as the lives of their colleagues, in several ways.

Enemies can see a soldier lighting up a cigarette from many miles away, even without night vision goggles, and from a much greater distance with easily available night-vision technology. Indeed, even a lit cigarette can be seen from hundreds of yards away, providing a ready target for snipers and others.

Striking a match or using a cigarette lighter will also ruin a soldier's night vision (especially the dilation of his pupils) for many minutes, and the nicotine in his system will further reduce his night vision for an even longer period by constricting the blood vessels in the eye and the delivery of oxygen, notes Banzhaf. Thus a soldier who smokes, in addition to telegraphing his position to the enemy, is less able to see them when they advance and protect his colleagues.

"Our military does not condone the use of drugs like marijuana, even if it is no more harmful than tobacco, and likewise can help to reduce stress. The use of alcoholic beverages also is not permitting in most combat situations. Thus there's no reason why the military not only tolerates -- but also actively helps to provide our troops with - a drug which is far more dangerous and far more addictive than alcohol and most illegal drugs combined," says Banzhaf.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law, and Executive Director
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // (703) 527-8418 // ash.org/