Safeguard health, stop smoking

  • Published
  • By Marilyn Sexton
  • Solano County Health and Social Services health education specialist.
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  After paying tribute to fallen servicemembers on Memorial Day, we also want to remember to safeguard the health of those who follow in their footsteps. Many who survived World War II and other battlefields, became smokers who died prematurely from smoking-related illnesses: cancer, heart disease and emphysema. 

Times have changed since the days when cigarettes were included with rations. 

Unfortunately, the tradition of showing heavy smoking or giving a dying Soldier a cigarette lives on in the movies from the John Wayne classics to "Saving Private Ryan." 

Tobacco companies paid to place their brands in movies because brand placement and smoking in movies are effective strategies to increase smoking behavior. Almost 35 percent of smokers were greatly influenced during their childhood by viewing movies with chain-smoking characters, according to a study in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal, "Pediatrics." 

Travis Airman Andrew Stoneberger, 20, from the 60th Aerial Port Squadron, could be considered the typical age of Airmen, 18 to 24, who smoke. He began smoking occasionally around age 15 in South Dakota, where it seemed, "all his friends were doing it." 

Although he doesn't consciously recall tobacco advertising while growing up, he does remember hanging out with friends, pretending to smoke candy cigarettes that puffed smoke-like sugar from an orange-colored tip. 

Growing up in the Army and traveling extensively, Airman Stoneberger said, "It seemed that smoking was normal," although he never saw his dad smoke. 

In California, smoking isn't the norm - only 13.3 percent of adults smoke. The higher smoking prevalence of 21.6 percent among all military branches is noticeable. The Air Force prevalence is lower at 17.5 percent, according to the 2004 California Active Duty Tobacco Use survey. 

The tobacco industry spends $13 billion annually promoting and marketing its products. 

In 2007, smokeless tobacco ads ran in all the military "Times" newspapers including the "Air Force Times." One of the tobacco industry's latest strategies is promoting potent smokeless products as "safer" than smoking. It started in 2003 when a tobacco company sent chewing tobacco to Iraq, then placed full-page, color ads in "USA Today" showing Marines in the background. 

In fact, smokeless tobacco contains more nicotine, the addictive element in tobacco, than cigarettes. According to the surgeon general, smokeless tobacco is a human carcinogen, containing 30 known carcinogens and increasing the risk of oral cancer four-to-six times. 

Currently, the military strives to prevent new generations from becoming lifelong smokers. There's no smoking during basic training. Prior to entering the service, Airman Stoneberger smoked a pack every two days. After basic training he intended to stay smoke free, but the stress of intensive Chinese classes in linguistics school and taking breaks around smokers were powerful triggers and he relapsed. Now, he's tapering off and planning to enter a program to quit. 

"The Health and Wellness Center at Travis offers cessation classes to individuals connected to Travis including active duty, their spouses, retired and DoD civilians," said Erin Greenwell, HAWC health educator. "The HAWC provides several types of tobacco cessation services. We prefer that individuals take the class because the classes, along with cessation medications, lead to higher, long-term, quit rates. That's our first choice." 

For shift workers and individuals unable to attend classes, the HAWC offers a telephone QuitLine through the American Lung Association. For cessation information, contact Ms. Greenwell at 424-2946.