HEALTH WATCH : Smart Maneuver

“Smoke if you’ve got ‘em,” said generations of sergeants to generations of GIs, and smoke they would, the cigarette break soon becoming for countless Americans in uniform an event of only slightly less importance than payday or a three-day pass.

Mass addiction seems to have begun with World War II, when millions who had never taken a puff prior to taking their induction oath almost overnight were transformed into confirmed smokers. It didn’t just happen. The tobacco companies were quick to see the long-term market potential in the masses who were mobilized for the war effort. A lot of cigarettes were given away free on military posts and included in field ration packages. When the freebies ran out, smokes could be bought for next to nothing at the PX.

But now, blessedly, the old order is finally passing. Men and women in uniform and the civilians who work with them throughout the military may still light up, but not any place they might feel like it. A new ban prohibits smoking in all workplaces, stairwells, hallways and outside building entrances on U.S. military bases worldwide, although it’s still allowed in designated areas in base clubs and in all living quarters.

Will the new rules reduce smoking in the military? Probably, to some extent, if only because of the inconvenience now involved in finding a place to fire up. Most immediately it will significantly cut exposure to secondhand smoke, a known killer. As in more and more civilian workplaces, so now in the military: Smoke if you’ve got ‘em, but go somewhere else to do it.