Report Urges DoD To Bar Tobacco Use

A June 28 report by the Institute of Medicine is urging the Department of Defense to ultimately eliminate the use of all tobacco products on military bases. The report, prepared at the request of the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, noted that despite past decisions to sharply curtail smoking and other tobacco use, more than 30 percent of all service members still use tobacco products. The rates are higher among service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the report stated. The armed forces should phase tobacco elimination in along a time line, starting with the military academies and officer-training programs first, followed by all new enlisted recruits, and finally the entire active-duty populace, the report stated. Commissaries, exchanges, and on-base convenience stores should stop selling tobacco products altogether, and tobacco use should be placed in the same class as alcohol abuse, poor physical fitness, and other proscribed behaviors, the report stated.