With
regard to tobacco products, the U.S. Department of Defense isn’t serving the
health interests of those who serve.
As I
have documented many times (here,
here,
here
and here),
in pursuing a tobacco-free fighting force, DOD has grossly misinformed American
service members about the relative safety of smokeless tobacco and
e-cigarettes.
David
Sweanor recently posted the photo at left from an Army and Air Force Exchange
Service store.
Even worse is this Military Times article from September 24,
about the removal of vaping products from Army, Air
Force and Navy exchanges by October 1, owing to “the outbreak of mysterious
vaping-related lung injuries.”
Actually, that mystery has been solved. CDC Principle Deputy Director Dr. Anne
Schuchat said on October 25, “The vast majority of patients with [lung
injuries] including those who died…, had a history of use of e-cigarette, or
vaping, products that contained THC.”
DOD removed products that we now know did not
kill 34 Americans who were instead vaping contaminated marijuana liquids, yet DOD
continues to sell cigarettes, which have, in fact, killed 380,000 Americans so
far this year.
In this case, military intelligence is an
attribute of our proud troops, but not of their health officers or administrators. The Military Times notes:
“Vaping now appears to be more common in the military than smoking
regular cigarettes, according to results of the most recent Defense Department
Health-Related Behaviors Survey of Active-Duty Service Members. The results of
that survey, conducted in 2015, showed 11.1 percent of troops said they were
daily e-cigarette users, compared to 7.4 percent who said they smoked
cigarettes daily. In the junior enlisted
ranks, nearly 20 percent said they were current e-cigarette smokers.”
The troops have made the switch to vastly safer
smoke-free tobacco at far higher rates of use than are seen in the general U.S.
population.
So far, the Marine Corps, which at 16% has the highest prevalence of vaping among the military branches,
continues to permit the sale of vaping products, signalling semper fidelis to
harm reduction.
The Army, Air Force and Navy exchanges should
immediately reverse their egregious decision and return e-cigarettes and vaping
products to their shelves.