It will take an act of the U.S. congress to ban smoking on naval ships..

February 27, 2011 - The Navy has stamped out smoking on submarines and many hospital campuses, but ships are unlikely to get similar treatment anytime soon. Smoking Ban Arrives January 1, 2011 for U.S. Navy's Submarine Sailors..

For years, the service has shown little interest in banning smoking for sailors at sea. Now, new academic research to be published next month reveals at least one reason why — an act of Congress would be required to reverse a federal law that requires all Navy ships to sell cigarettes and tobacco.

The pro-smoking rule is written into the U.S. Code and was quietly passed by Congress nearly two decades ago after intense lobbying by the tobacco industry, according to the study, “Forcing the Navy to Sell Cigarettes,” which will be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH).

PAPER: Forcing the Navy to Sell Cigarettes on Ships: How the Tobacco Industry and Politicians Torpedoed Navy Tobacco Control, Naphtali Offen, BS (naphtali.offen@ucsf.edu), Sarah R. Arvey, PhD, Elizabeth A. Smith, PhD and Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, FAAN, AJPH 101(3): 404-411, March 2011, ABSTRACT..

Other related papers published by Dr. Smith and colleagues:
PAPER: "Willful Misconduct": How the US Government Prevented Tobacco-Disabled Veterans From Obtaining Disability Pensions, Naphtali Offen, BS, Elizabeth A. Smith, PhD and Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, American Journal of Public Health 100(7) 1166-1173, July 2010, ABSTRACT..

PAPER: "Everywhere the Soldier Will Be": Wartime Tobacco Promotion in the US Military,
Elizabeth A. Smith, PhD and Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, American Journal of Public Health 99(9): |1595-1602, September 2009, ABSTRACT..

PAPER: "If You Know You Exist, It’s Just Marketing Poison": Meanings of Tobacco Industry Targeting in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community, Elizabeth A. Smith, PhD, Katherine Thomson, BA, Naphtali Offen, BS and Ruth E. Malone, PhD, RN, American Journal of Public Health June 2008, 98(6): |996-1003, June 2008, ABSTRACT..

The law is a lasting reminder of tobacco industry influence that blocked the Navy’s early attempts to ban smoking on ships in the 1990s — including the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier — and helped form the foundation of current shipboard tobacco regulations, according to the study and a Stars and Stripes examination of tobacco industry documents archived at the University of California. “The repercussions have been felt for years and they will continue to be felt,” said Elizabeth Smith, a study author and University of California associate adjunct professor of social and behavioral science.

Philip Morris USA declined to comment on the tobacco study or internal company documents obtained through the University of California. “We don’t have a comment on the old documents you reference,” Kenneth Garcia, a spokesman for parent company Altria, wrote in an e-mail response.

Reference: Smoke-free surface ships in the Navy? It’ll take an act of Congress. No, really, it will. by Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes, 2/25/2011.