Naval base classes helping smokers quit

Source: Ventura County (CA) Star
Date: 2010-03-04
Author: Kim Lamb Gregory, 800-516-4567

"It\'s just so easy to smoke when you\'re on an aircraft carrier,"
said the 30-year-old Missouri native. "You\'re cooped up on an
aircraft carrier for 45 days, working 14 hours a day, with no
social life. The smoke deck, it\'s the only social environment."

Pantazo sat recently with eight other servicemen at a
smoking-cessation workshop at Naval Base Ventura County in Port
Hueneme, Calif. . . .

A 2009 study by the Veterans Health Administration, part of the
Department of Veterans Affairs, found that 50 percent of U.S.
troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan come home addicted to
tobacco.

"You can face death at any moment," explained Petty Officer 1st
Class John Vissing, who helps run the Port Hueneme naval base\'s
Tobacco-Cessation Program. "I can tell you, it\'s always present
-- from rockets or weapons."

The multiple deployment cycles aggravate a smoker\'s desire to
quit, too, he said. A soldier or sailor might figure he or she is
going to face the stress of combat again in four or five months,
so why bother to quit? . . .

Those at the workshop said they are immersed in a tobacco
culture in the military.

"I don\'t smoke for two months, then you walk back to the
barracks and there are 20 guys smoking," Pantazo said.

A June 2009 report released by the Institute of Medicine
recommends that the Department of Defense strive for a
tobacco-free military, adding that the DOD spends more than $1.6
billion each year on tobacco-related medical care and lost
productivity. The report urges both the DOD and the Department of
Veterans Affairs to implement comprehensive tobacco-control
programs.