Study suggests tobacco-free U.S. military

WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- A total ban on smoking is needed in the U.S. military but it probably would take 20 years to accomplish, a new Institute of Medicine study indicates.

A 15-member committee of doctors and healthcare professionals suggested in the study the best way to reduce the problem would be to eliminate smoking through a gradual phased-in ban throughout the services, starting with basic training for recruits. Periodic urine tests could be employed to make sure the ban is upheld.

The ban is possible if the U.S. Defense Department begins to close "the pipeline of new tobacco users entering the military" and slowly cuts off supplies of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, the Committee on Smoking Cessation in Military and Veteran Populations said.

The military has a smoking rate nearly twice that of the civilian population, the study says, with about 30 percent of service personnel using tobacco.

The account of the health and financial toll from tobacco use is a bleak one, Stars and Stripes said in its online edition.

The study says smokers are more likely than those who don't smoke to drop out of basic training, have poor vision, leave the service within the first year, get sick and miss work.