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Article Excerpt
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH STUART BONDURANT, DEAN EMERITUS AT THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL; KENNETH KIZER, CHAIRMAN, MEDSPHERE SYSTEMS CORPORATION SUBJECT: COMBATING TOBACCO USE IN MILITARY AND VETERAN POPULATIONS MODERATOR: SARAH FRUEH, MEDIA OFFICER, THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES LOCATION: ZENGER ROOM, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON, D.C. TIME: 10:30 A.M. EDT DATE: FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH STUART BONDURANT, DEAN EMERITUS AT THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL; KENNETH KIZER, CHAIRMAN, MEDSPHERE SYSTEMS CORPORATION SUBJECT: COMBATING TOBACCO USE IN MILITARY AND VETERAN POPULATIONS MODERATOR: SARAH FRUEH, MEDIA OFFICER, THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES LOCATION: ZENGER ROOM, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON, D.C. TIME: 10:30 A.M. EDT DATE: FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009
MS. FRUEH: Good morning, and thanks for joining us today for the release of the Institute of Medicine's new report, "Combating Tobacco Use in Military and Veteran Populations." I'm Sarah Frueh from the news office at the National Academies. And with us today, we have two members of the committee that wrote the report: Committee Chair Stuart Bondurant, professor of medicine and dean emeritus at the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and Kenneth Kizer, former undersecretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs and former director of the California Department of Health Services, where he was one of the architect's of California's tobacco control program.
After a presentation from the committee members, we'll open the floor to your questions. And if you have a question at the time, we'd ask you to please step to the microphone, and state your name and affiliation before asking your question. And those listening to the webcast can submit a question at any time.
And now I'll turn things over to Dr. Bondurant.
DR. BONDURANT: Thank you, Sarah. The -- first of all, thank you all for coming.
Q: Sir, can you please talk into the microphone?
DR. BONDURANT: (Off mike.) Q: Thank you.
DR. BONDURANT: Thank you all for coming. Is that better? We appreciate -- appreciate very much your interest.
Tobacco, as you know, is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States today. And it strikes a significant toll on the readiness and effectiveness of our military forces and considerable expense from the Veterans Administration in the form of health-care costs of our -- of our veterans.
The Defense Department and the Veterans Administration asked the Institute of Medicine to undertake this study of what you could do to improve the long-standing and substantial programs of tobacco control that those two federal agencies have had.
Is there echo in the -- do I hear echo?
STAFF: Yeah, I need you to really pull the microphone to you so that I don't have to try to adjust for the distance.
DR. BONDURANT: You want me to pull it to me?
STAFF: Yes. Thank you.
DR. BONDURANT: Closer? Okay.
STAFF: So you can -- DR. BONDURANT: Okay.
STAFF: Good.
DR. BONDURANT: Okay. Well, my point was just that the -- that the costs of tobacco to the military, in terms of readiness and compromise of the physical condition of the forces and health costs in the military services, and to the Veterans' Administration, in terms of health costs of veterans, are both substantial. And that was the basis for the requests of the two agencies to the Institute of Medicine to undertake this study.
It needs to be noted that both agencies have had long-standing records of major programs to control tobacco use. Those programs have not been entirely successful, and the spirit of the request for the committee's report was one of "How can we do a better job in controlling the use -- in controlling the use of tobacco?" The -- to anticipate -- the major recommendations of the committee, after careful consideration, are, first of all, that the Defense Department begin immediately to plan to develop a tobacco-free military system, that the -- to conservatively analyze, the benefits of creating a tobacco-free military phased in over some time could be achieved without disruption sufficient to offset the advantages of undertaking that.
The committee determined that tobacco actually impairs military readiness, and that is one of the reasons for the recommendation of the committee that the military move to develop a tobacco-free environment. And the third key recommendation of the committee, which is a broad one, is based on the observation that many factors influence the prevalence of the use of tobacco -- genetic factors, psychological factors, environmental factors of various kinds, cues, behavior of friends and colleagues.
But it's -- many factors influence the use of tobacco, and therefore to be effective in controlling the use of tobacco, a program needs to be one that addresses many different factors. In short, a comprehensive program that is coordinated and well-managed needs to be developed. And that is the third component -- a third key component of the committee's recommendation.
With...
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