TARGETING TOBACCO

TOBACCO AND READINESS

The most recent study on smoking by the U.S. Surgeon General, The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, presents the now-conclusive evidence that smoking's effects on the body go far beyond lung cancer and heart disease. Smoking is now known to cause abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, periodontitis, and stomach cancer.

Why Should Soldiers care?

• Tobacco use hurts your strength, stamina and endurance
• Your body continues to suffer from the affects of tobacco for hours after your last puff or chew
• You will never reach your peak performance if you use tobacco

• Tobacco users get more training injuries
• Tobacco users have more cold weather injuries
• Healing time is longer for injuries
• Tobacco users have more sick call visits
• Nicotine in tobacco makes you shaky and reduces hand-eye coordination
• Immediately after every puff, the airways leading to your lungs get narrower
• You get less oxygen with each breath you take. That hurts your physical performance
• Your strength, endurance, and stamina suffer with every puff or dip
• Your body suffers for hours after you finish smoking or chewing
• You give away your unit's position when you light up
• Tobacco use decreases night vision
• Even a small cigarette butt can identify you as an American soldier, and tobacco odors can be smelled from very far away.

• Smoking causes sexual impotence.