Posted on 04/11/2010 4:54:21 AM PDT by myknowledge
NORFOLK, Va., April 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy announced smoking will be banned below decks on all submarines effective Dec. 31.
"This policy was initiated for the health of the sailors who choose not to smoke," said Lt. Commander Mark Jones, spokesman for the Commander Naval Submarine Forces in Norfolk, Va. "It is unfair for them to be exposed to the unhealthy side effects of secondhand smoke."
Jones said a 2009 study by the Navy found non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke on all four classes of submarines, CNN reported. The Navy has 71 subs with 13,000 sailors on active duty, and nearly 40 percent are smokers, recent polls indicate.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
The Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Scranton is seen after a routine port visit to Souda Bay in Greece on March 17, 2009.
NO SMOKING signs should be on board all subs, for the health of the officers and crew.
I’m astounded that smoking was ever permitted ON SUBMARINES in the first place. Really?
It’s only banned below deck...
Who still smokes anyway?
>>Im astounded that smoking was ever permitted ON SUBMARINES in the first place. Really?
In the confined little world of a submarine where the air is full of cooking grease, sewage, diesel fuel, paint fumes, ozone, burnt insulation, and body odor, we barely noticed the cigarette smoke. (Yes, nuclear subs smell like diesel too!)
Do you think the smell of fermenting tobacco spit marinating in trash cans will smell better?
Is smoking permitted while submerged? Seems expensive in terms or oxygen. I’m surprised that 40% of the crew smoke, these days.
I wonder whether of not this is related to the decision to permit women to serve on submarines. Next they’ll be dispensing air freshener through the ventilation system.
My son, a sonar tech, calls his boat a “can of farts”; respectfully, of course!
I’m a non smoker (quit in 85) but can someone direct me to a study that can technically prove that second hand smoke hurts people. Then I will believe.
Shouldn’t we first ban smoking in/around the White House and especially around the president? Where does the President go to smoke?
Come to my Legion and I’ll show you.
And I got a load of crap because I "wasn't man enough to smoke"!
Usually everyone smokes by the air cleaning equipment and the only time you can smell smoke outside of AMR bay (on a 688) is before and after watch when you get a real line of guys waiting to smoke hence a constant smoke factor.
We were only allowed 2 lit smokes at a time. 4 at a time if we had riders.
It’s not expensive in oxygen terms. If The Bomb(02 machine) is running smoking is only allowed in the ER (which makes the whole place smell like smoke for a few days, no air cleaning equip back there).
The one time we couldn’t run The Bomb(it was broke) or ventilate (on a mission) and were living on just O2 candles for about a week, they turned the smoking light out. Everyone was miserable and sleepy that whole week.
I called my Congress Critter about this. Everyone else should as well. Life sucks enough on a Boat. Don’t make it harder on our guys.
Life has changed since then. See my last post
Better ban listening to iPods while on duty too.
That was policy when I was in (got out in 2002). Although you could listen to a walkman/cd player(!) during field day if you weren’t on watch.
I noticed it all the time, and it was not just a petty irritation. Spent my life with nose 2" from airconditioning vents to get "some" "fresh" air. It was f'in awful actually.
When I served on boomers back in the late 60s and early 70s, we were allowed to take along 15 cartons per patrol (which we paid $2.20 each on the tender). And that 15 cartons figure was based on what the XO smoked over a typical 65-day run.
Smoking was allowed everywhere, of course, and I would estimate that 80% of the crew smoked.
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