Navy Officially Bans Smoking on Submarines

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Life aboard a submarine may soon get a little harder to take for thousands of sailors.

The Navy announced today a ban on smoking aboard submarines while they are deployed below the surface after medical testing showed non-smokers suffered effects of second-hand smoke. It will take effect by Dec. 31, 2010.

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Smoking would still be allowed above decks when the sub is on the surface, he said, but they typically pack out for 60 days at a time, sometimes longer, leaving smokers without an opportunity to light up for months at a stretch.

"Really the only reason they do need to come up is to replenish food stocks," Jones said.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/navy-bans-smoking-submarines/story?id=10311969

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Wonder if they'll allow SNU's on board. Saw this smokeless tobacco product on last 60 Minutes which doesn't have users spitting like other smokeless products.

[donco6]

1. They could smoke on a submarine?

Wow.

Suck it up.

[Captain Hilts]

2. A LOT of smoking took place on subs. That boredom/tension thing. nt

[DJ13]

3. Now it will be fist fights from cravings

[izquierdista]

8. Nah

As soon as DADT is repealed, everyone can relax with a little hot gay sex. :evilgrin:

[rhett o rick]

14. I think they are going to allow women to serve on subs soon. Sounds like bad timing.

I am of course joking about the possibly of woman taking the place of smoking. Actually, I think that rape in the military is a serious problem and would like to see more action taken to eliminate the problem. For example, recruiters should be required to explain the risk level for women when they sign up.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Is this a vaseline joke ?

:shrug:

[rhett o rick]

26. Sorry, I guess I missed the joke. nm

[Captain Hilts]

25. The sub service is a very self-selecting one. It takes a certain kind of person and accountability

is much much higher. There is a good esprit de corps. I think women will fit in just fine.

But I completely agree with you about how women should be given some reality of life in the service.

[dencol]

21. Haha, I am sure hot gay sex already takes place, even with DADT. n/t

[Lord Magus]

13. Except it seems incredibly dangerous.

When you're in a small enclosed space (like a submerged submarine) lighting up a cigarette makes even less sense than usual.

[rhett o rick]

15. Not that I think they should allow smoking, but they have designated

spaces that are ventilated. The atmosphere on a sub is cleaned by scrubbers.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Yeah they had designated smoking areas

Currently, smoking is allowed in designated spaces that “must be well ventilated and not in the vicinity of stationary watch stations,” according to a 2005 Navy policy.

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As an unintended consequence, the ban also might curtail certain business dealings.

“Smoking leads to some nefarious behavior onboard submarines,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Grady Lott, a former smoker also assigned to Submarine Group 8. “When you can’t get ’em, you’ll do anything. I knew some folks that paid up to $60 for a pack of cigarettes while they were underway.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69193

Of course when you're sitting in a sealed tube guess it was hard to scrub the air of the nasty stuff in the smoke.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Through WWII into the 1980s you could smoke anywhere. I know a guy whose skipper

"turned out the smoking lamp" after one of the back-up air scrubbers went on the fritz.

It was NOT a happy crew. Oh, yeah, the skipper didn't smoke.

[liberal N proud]

6. I would have thought there never have been smoking allowed on subs

Can you imagine, being a non smoker stuck in the tube with all that smoke? Smoke eater or not, the hazard still exists.

WOW@!

[NutmegYankee]

7. Typically the smoking was confined to an area right before the air scrubbers.

If you just avoided that area, you got fairly clean air. Or at least we thought prior to this study...

[verges]

17. Ours was waaay back in shaft alley.

I don't recall that you could really smell the cigarettes up forward. But I was the only pipe smoker aboard. And everyone knew when I lit up!

[Grassy Knoll]

9. So thats why they turned yellow.....

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Well, think about it - only non-smokers were eligible for spacecraft.

.
.
.

So in such a confined space

I think non-smokers should be the only ones eligible for submarine duty.

Considering that submarines are a unique part of national defense

Fuck the smokers . . .

btw

I'm a smoker..

sadly

[truthisfreedom]

11. They'll sneak in electronic cigs. I've seen them and had smoke blown directly at me from one

and there was no detectable odor.

[MadMaddie]

12. Geeze that would be like a bingo hall! Blech!

At least in WA there is no smoking in Bingo halls anymore. I have bad allergies.

[lonestarnot]

16. Damn! No sex, no smokes and 60 day stretches. My crystal ball sees alot of

Article 32s.... Men overboard. And our subs carry :nuke:

[Tailormyst]

18. I'm honestly shocked it wasn't banned long ago.

They can always use E-cigs!

[nealmhughes]

19. You cannot smell smoke from a cigar or cigarette on a submarine.

I know. It kept us sane, and nearly everyone in my watch station in maneuvering smoked, even the Navigator, and the Engineer sure did. The old captain did and the XO and the new one smoked a pipe.

You can really only smell food cooking on a submarine. But when you get on land, shower in "real" water and wear "real" clothing, you realize how badly you smell! It is like a tub full of rusty water with diesel fuel mixed in with it. I would throw away all but my new underwear and my dress uniform I flew home in and buy new. The sub smell cannot be described, but you do not realize it when you are onboard.

There are electrostatic precipitators, CO2 scrubbers and O2 generators as well as Hydrogen burners, and an occasional "Ventilate" all combined to give a sub that good "lived in" smell. Oddly, even in port in a tropical clime such as Port Canaveral, no bugs seem to be able to tolerate the atmosphere even with the Control Room and Missile Compartment hatches open and the aft hatch open and cofferdammed for shore power.

It is a scientific fact that every month spent under water extends life at least one year, or so I have been told.

[Captain Hilts]

24. Dad smoked 3 packs a day as a sub skipper. On diesels.

I LOVE the smell of diesel.

[ZombieHorde]

20. Hopefully there is an exception for cock. nt

[No Elephants]

23. What's the big deal? They can step outside to light up, just like the rest of the smokers..

Oh, now I get it.

[DemoTex]

27. What happens when the skipper starts jonesing for a cig?