SubFor: Smoking on subs to end by Dec. 31 - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

SubFor: Smoking on subs to end by Dec. 31

By Dec. 31, there will be no more smoking on submarines.

Vice Adm. John Donnelly, commander of Submarine Force, announced the ban Thursday.

“Our sailors are our most important asset to accomplishing our missions,” he said in the release announcing the policy. “Recent testing has proven that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine. The only way to eliminate risk to our non-smoking sailors is to stop smoking aboard our submarines.”

“An incremental approach starts now,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Jones, a spokesman for Submarine Force. “On Dec. 31, the smoking lamp goes out.”

The smoking policy on each sub will be at the discretion of the ship’s commander until that date. In the meantime, the submarine force is using a variety of means to help smokers. Each boat will implement a training program and ensure a cessation representative is aboard. The independent duty corpsmen will also have smoking therapy patches and nicotine gum available, Jones said.

The submarine force is not banning smokeless tobacco, but is highly discouraging its use as a means to quit smoking, Jones said.

Health risks for secondhand smoke on crew members who remain submerged for months at a time were the catalyst for change, Jones said.

Although a 2004 submarine study said “passive smoke exposure appears to be minimum,” for nonsmokers, Donnelly was motivated by a 2006 Surgeon General’s report on involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke, which emphasized there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. As such, the submarine force in 2009 chartered the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory to conduct a study on nine submarines, including at least one from each class. The results indicated that non-smoking sailors were exposed to measurable levels of environment tobacco smoke, also called secondhand smoke, according to the release.

“Admiral Donnelly feels that even minimal exposure is too much exposure,” Jones said.

“We are able to discern what the health effects are better than in the past,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead told Navy Times on March 23 when he addressed the forthcoming ban. “That atmosphere moves around the submarine. You don’t smell it, but the damaging things from the smoke are still present.”

Donnelly has briefed his intention and reasoning to submariners around the fleet, Jones said.

“For the most part, it’s been positive feedback,” he said.

Related reading

• CNO: Smoking ban for subs in the works