No butts about it: Navy subs to ban smoking

[Roon]

"You’re going to have some very, very disgruntled sailors”
KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, Georgia - Aboard the submarine USS Florida, there's no e-mail or phone, no breaks for sunshine or fresh air. For many Navy sailors serving 90-day tours in cramped quarters underwater, one of the few creature comforts has been smoke breaks below decks in the machine room.

By New Year's Eve, sailors will have to kick the habit.

In early April, the Navy ordered its fleet of 71 submarines to snuff out smoking onboard by the end of 2010 — closing one of the last loopholes in an indoor smoking ban the U.S. military imposed in 1994.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36829638/ns/us_news-military/

[Chemisse]

1. I'm just stunned that they still allow smoking on the subs to begin with nt

[RandomThoughts]

2. I don't think they do.

I read that same thing years ago.

I remember reading that, so might be one of those things.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Yes, they do permit smoking in specific areas. Dad smoked 3 packs a day when a skipper

on a sub.

[RandomThoughts]

7. I remember them talking about no smoking in military years ago.

Thought it was ships also.

[Captain Hilts]

8. No. They go out for months at a time, so there would be mutinies. I know of a sub

that damn near had one when one of the air scrubbers went out of commission and the non-smoking skipper saw this as a chance to extinguish the smoking lamp for the duration of the cruise.

Not a good idea.

[GSanon]

3. yea,

not the safest place to smoke, obviously. Those things consume oxygen, right?

[Captain Hilts]

6. Subs make their own oxygen. nt

[JuniperLea]

4. Me too!

Gross! I can't imagine! Even when I was a smoker this would have sounded gross! I never liked smoking flights either. The last smoking international flight I was on was just disgusting! And I was smoking! EW!

[Warpy]

9. They'd better stock up on alternative nicotine products

like chew, patches, gum, and even e cigs if they don't want a mutiny. Xanax would also be a great idea for some of them.

Some people out there can't quit. I've watched them struggle even after multiple heart surgeries and laryngectomies. They suck smoke through holes in their necks.

I was always the first to bug the docs for patches for my non cardiac smoking patients and for Xanax for the cardiac patients. Involuntary cold turkey is not a nice thing to do to anybody.

[provis99]

10. well, I smoke and I think banning smoking in subs is a good idea.

I wouldn't mind inhaling my own smoke in a submarine, but I wouldn't want to inhale other people's smoke, since they always have crappier taste in cigarettes than I do.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. i don't trust air i can't see... n/t