Smoking ban will protect the health of the force

Smoking helps manage stress

Saves money in tobacco-related healthcare costs

The ban is ‘irritating’ and requires smokers to stock up on nicotine replacement products

Protects non-smokers from secondhand smoke

It is hard to quit smoking

Study found unacceptable levels of carcinogens in air—the scrubbers did not work

Submariners cannot use some cessation medications (eg, zyban, chantix)

Ban will encourage some smokers to quit

‘Smoke pits’ are an important mechanism for dissemination of information

Implementation of the ban went better than expected

Some smokers will gain weight when they quit

Typically there were long waiting lines for the ‘smoke pit’

Some smokers will switch to chewing tobacco

There will be more room for storage (some smokers used up to 1/3 of locker space for cigarettes)

The ban eliminates one of the few ‘creature comforts’ available to submariners

The ban will lower costs to smokers

Given women were recently allowed on submarines, implementing a smoking ban is too much change during one time period

There is strong peer support in the Navy for smoking cessation

The ban breaks with a long established tradition of smoking in the submarine force

Smokers were overall less ‘grumpy’ and stressed after the ban

The ban may negatively impact retention

The ban simplified rules about smoking which varied across submarines

Some submarines gradually reduced smoking breaks before fully implementing the ban to help smokers to quit