Posted on 04/05/2010 10:11:40 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The top US naval officer has vowed to stop people lighting up in submarines, where the confined atmosphere has serious passive smoking implications, a report said Monday.
"We are going to stop smoking on submarines," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told a recent meeting of senior submariners, according to the Navy Times magazine.
Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Mark Jones confirmed a ban could be in the pipeline, telling AFP: "We are currently looking at changing the policy, but we have not changed the policy."
At present, smoking on US submarines is up to the commanding officer's discretion and there are designated areas on many vessels where the crew are allowed to smoke.
"That atmosphere moves around the submarine. You don't smell it but the damaging things from the smoke are still present," Roughead was quoted as saying by the Navy Times.
A Pentagon study last year carried out by the American Institute of Medicine revealed that soldiers smoke a lot more on average than civilians and that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had seen a spike in smoking.
The last official figures for the US military, in 2005, showed that almost one third of personnel in the armed forces, 32 percent, smoke as opposed to just one in five of the American population as a whole.
Jones said up to 40 percent of US submariners smoke, making it all the more important to look into a ban for the overall health of American sailors
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My wife and I go to Vegas every once in a while. Cigarette smoking in the hotels and casinos is allowed, and very noticeable. The smell of stale cigarette smoke seems to be everywhere, including our hair and clothes after a while - just plain nauseating. I can only imagine how bad it must be in a submarine.
Well with queers or women on a sub something will be smoked.
I find amusing that the motive is second hand smoke and not, like, that setting fires on a borderline deathtrap could make it less borderline-ish.
There are things in the air of a sub that are much more dangerous than a second hand smoke.
This is a farce.
While they’re at it they should keep troops away from the smell of gunpowder. It gums up weapons, stinks like sulpher and studies have shown that secondhand gunpowder smoke can kill.
Next will be banning all the World War I, World War II, and Korean War movies.
Captain: No smoking sailor! Oh, never mind, you can “smoke” the 8 inchers aboard my ship......Carry on!
I guess you haven’t seen any of the classic WWII movies with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Kirk Douglass, Cary Grant, Edmond O’Brien...
Just give ‘em “The Green Berets” down there, and cut out the smokes.
I am sure our Navy subs have air cleaning equipment on board. The sub is a closed environment. The food being cooked in the galley would circulate through the sub if it were not treated by air cleaning equipment.
We had a air cleaner in our sonar transmitting space. I did not know it, but the guys in my division would sneak into that area and smoke pot. With that air cleaner on, all odor was gone.
I roll right past Las Vegas for that very reason. I have no interest in gambling, so why voluntarily enter the smelly premises?
The only time I've spent on a sub was for the purpose of repairing a Motorola SatNav on a research boat. It was a diesel boat. The smell of diesel was in my hair and clothes following the visit. I did get an invite for lunch. The quality of the food certainly matches the claims. Very good! I got a quick tour as well. The stainless steel peanut butter pump was installed to move the sewage around. Cooling was provided by using Peltier devices bonded with the hot side against the hull. An air plenum was routed over the cold side. The guy conducting the tour said that freon coolants aren't permitted on subs because the freon turns into phosgene gas (neurotoxin) in a fire.
On the way back to the shop, my radiator hose blew. It was a memorable morning.
E-cigarettes will solve this problem.
Oh, for crying out freakin' loud.
More nanny-statism. I never thought I’d see it in the armed forces, though. Sad.
If someone’s in the armed forces and can’t handle a little second hand smoke, they need to get the hell OUT. We don’t need pu**y’s fighting for us.
Because it is legal and Sailors want to do it. As long as they are away from flammables, it was allowed. Of course, it is past time for complainers to create enough adversity to cause change. Such is the life of smokers. 20% of the population bears the brunt of the smoker guardians.
Yes, most have even begun to believe the idiocy of the anti smoker groups - ie second hand smoke, geez. If all of their stupidity was actually true, the dead would litter the bars and restaurants that allowed smoking. Even if you considered smoking causing a loss of life years, you should be promoting it to decrease the requirements of Social Security. Think of the benefits of all those that die so early! Just where are your ideals anyway?
What a joke! Second hand smoke - do you really believe all that crap?
Well, they’re sticking women on subs now, can anyone guess what these sailor’s new hobby will be???
Won’t be smoking - at least not until after...
LOL!
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