Highlights of a study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department to combat tobacco use in the military.
Findings:
_ Tobacco is used by fewer than 20 percent of Americans compared with more than 30 percent of active-duty military personnel and about 22 percent of veterans.
_ Tobacco use in the military has risen since 1998, threatening to reverse steady declines for several decades.
_ The rate of smoking among military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may be 50 percent higher than the rate of those who didn't go there.
_ The Defense Department spends more than $1.6 billion a year on tobacco-related medical care, increased hospitalizations and lost days of work.
_ In 2008, the Veterans Affairs Department spent more than $5 billion treating veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is linked to tobacco use.
Recommendations:
_Establish a timeline to ban all tobacco use on military installations, starting with military academies and officer training programs in both universities and the military, followed by new recruits and then active-duty personnel.
_Stop discounting tobacco products in military commissaries and exchanges and eventually stop selling them altogether.
_Prohibit tobacco use anywhere on military installations.
_Remove federal legislation that requires VA facilities to set up designated smoking areas, allowing them to become smoke-free.
_Engage top officials at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to implement and enforce comprehensive tobacco-control programs.
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Source: June 2009 report, "Combating Tobacco In Military and Veteran Populations," by the Institute of Medicine in Washington. The institute was chartered in 1970 as part of the National Academy of Sciences.
