Military tobacco policies: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The United States military has the legacy of a pro-tobacco culture and still has prevalence rates of tobacco use that are higher than their civilian counterparts. One tactic for decreasing use and the subsequent health problems is through effective tobacco control policies. We collected available to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Military medicine 2011-12, Vol.176 (12), p.1382-1387
Main Authors: Jahnke, Sara A, Hoffman, Kevin M, Haddock, C Keith, Long, Mark A D, Williams, Larry N, Lando, Harry A, Poston, W S Carlos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Bans
Best practice
Civilians
Enforcement
Humans
Military Personnel
Occupational Health Services
Organizational Policy
Regulation
Smoking
Smoking Cessation
Smoking Prevention
Tobacco smoke
Tobacco Smoke Pollution - prevention & control
Tobacco, Smokeless
United States
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Summary:The United States military has the legacy of a pro-tobacco culture and still has prevalence rates of tobacco use that are higher than their civilian counterparts. One tactic for decreasing use and the subsequent health problems is through effective tobacco control policies. We collected available tobacco control policies from all four branches of the military and, through qualitative analysis, identified policies that were unique either as providing more or less detail and restriction than peer group policies. Best and worst practice policies in the areas of enforcement, smoking cessation, smokeless tobacco use, environmental tobacco smoke, framing tobacco as non-normative, designated tobacco use areas, and monitoring of tobacco use are presented. Because policy making can be an effective tool for improving the health of military members, understanding what policy components are comparatively positive or negative is an important tool for health advocates both in the military and civilian settings.
ISSN:0026-4075
1930-613X
DOI:10.7205/MILMED-D-11-00164