title: Military tobacco policies: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
abstract: The United States military has the legacy of a pro-tobacco culture and still has prevalence rates of tobacco use that are higher than their civilian counterparts. One tactic for decreasing use and the subsequent health problems is through effective tobacco control policies. We collected available tobacco control policies from all four branches of the military and, through qualitative analysis, identified policies that were unique either as providing more or less detail and restriction than peer group policies. Best and worst practice policies in the areas of enforcement, smoking cessation, smokeless tobacco use, environmental tobacco smoke, framing tobacco as non-normative, designated tobacco use areas, and monitoring of tobacco use are presented. Because policy making can be an effective tool for improving the health of military members, understanding what policy components are comparatively positive or negative is an important tool for health advocates both in the military and civilian settings.
authors.affiliation: National Development and Research Institutes, 1920 West 143rd Street, Suite 120, Leawood, KS 66224, USA.
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Jahnke
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: C Keith
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Haddock
authors.forename: Mark A D
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Larry N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Harry A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Lando
authors.forename: W S Carlos
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Poston
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel; D009786:Occupational Health Services; D016134:Organizational Policy; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control; D014030:Tobacco, Smokeless; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution