Smokers cost US military over $130 million a yearFebruary 23, 2001Smokers cost the US military over $130 million a year, almost 1 per cent of the total annual training budget, shows research in Tobacco Control. Smoking was the single biggest predictor of premature discharge from duty, the study found. The research team tracked around 29,000 recruits in the US Air Force over 12 months. This section of the military has the lowest prevalence of smoking among its ranks at 28.5 per cent, as opposed to the Marines where the prevalence is almost 45 per cent. At the end of 12 months 14 per cent of new recruits had been discharged, for which the single best predictor was smoking. Almost twice as many smokers as non-smokers were discharged prematurely, with almost one in five smokers compared with one in 12 non-smokers discharged in the first year of service. The average cost to train one recruit in any of the service branches of the US military is $28,800; the overall cost if an annual $14 billion. The US Department of Defense estimates that excess training costs for smokers in the US Air Force amount to $18 million a year. Applied across all the services, this comes to over $130 million a year, conclude the authors. The authors point out that smoking may be part of a constellation of underlying behaviours and attitudes, but suggest that campaigns to help recruits kick the habit might save a lot of money. AlphaGalileo Foundation |
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| Related Smoking Current Events and Smoking News Articles Women Can Quit Smoking and Control Weight Gain Many women don't quit smoking because they are afraid of gaining weight. That's because nicotine suppresses the appetite and boosts a smoker's metabolism. Cigarettes Harbor Many Bacteria Harmful to Human Health Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France. Study raises concerns about outdoor second-hand smoke Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard. Early end to key study on benefits of niacin, a B vitamin, in keeping arteries open was premature Heart experts at Johns Hopkins are calling premature the early halt of a study by researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center on the benefits of combining extended-release niacin, a B vitamin, with cholesterol-lowering statin medications to prevent blood vessel narrowing. Athletes on performance enhancers more likely to abuse alcohol, other drugs College athletes who use performance-enhancing substances may be at heightened risk of misusing alcohol and using recreational drugs as well, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 90 percent of Africans are not protected by smoke-free laws As African nations are poised to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries, nearly 90 percent of people on the continent remain without meaningful protection from secondhand smoke, according to a new report released at a regional cancer conference today. Workplace BPA exposure increases risk of male sexual dysfunction High levels of workplace exposure to Bisphenol-A may increase the risk of reduced sexual function in men, according to a Kaiser Permanente study appearing in the journal Human Reproduction, published by Oxford Journals. Exposure to several common infections over time may be associated with risk of stroke Cumulative exposure to five common infection-causing pathogens may be associated with an increased risk of stroke, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the January 2010 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Carnegie Mellon researchers link health-care debate to risk of dying in US and Europe The current health care debate in the United States is complicated. Trade-offs between heath care expenditures, lifestyle choices and life expectancy have been suggested but seldom clearly demonstrated. Developmental delay could stem from nicotinic receptor deletion The loss of a gene through deletion of genetic material on chromosome 15 is associated with significant abnormalities in learning and behavior, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in a report that appears online today in the journal Nature Genetics. More Smoking Current Events and Smoking News Articles |
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