Sean Bell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development:

 

June 19’s news on the brouhaha out of DC around the Veterans' Administration (VA) not providing adequate information to test subjects around the potential side effects of Chantix was a sad reminder of the larger issue around veterans and tobacco use in general.
 
For those of you not following the story, ABC News and the Washington Times reported that the VA did not adequately inform veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who received Chantix as part of a study that there are potential severe side effects to the medication, including depression and even suicidal thoughts. Both sides of the aisle in Congress were quick to blast the VA; Senator Barack Obama even published an open letter demanding an investigation.
 
Free & Clear unequivocally supports adequately informing program participants of ANY potential side effects associated with tobacco cessation medications followed by providing good decision support.  The VA has been criticized before for not informing test subjects of potential side effects and then not monitoring them adequately. Given the service these veterans have given our country, it's particularly galling to hear that they may have yet again been put at risk. 
 
However, it's also appalling that so much energy in the press has gone to this issue, yet no one has stopped to question what either the VA or the military is doing about tobacco use among both veterans and active-duty personnel.
 
A press release last year from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shared some pretty alarming statistics:  

• According to the American Journal of Public Health, the military smoking rate increased from 29 percent in 1998 to 34 percent by 2002 (abstract here).

• The American Journal of Preventive Medicine further reported that more than 30 percent of military smokers said they began smoking after entering the military and 43 percent of ex-smokers returned to smoking after entering the Air Force (abstract here).  

As the release goes on to point out, "history shows that's bad news for the health of veterans and their families. For example, smoking among servicemen addicted during World War II led to a nine-fold increase in lung cancer deaths by 1980” (emphasis mine).
 
The irony here is even thicker when you consider the fact that there's evidence that smoking doesn't just kill veterans, it also may double the risk of experiencing PTSD, the very syndrome that caused so much outrage yesterday around Chantix use.
 
We applaud the fact that both sides of the aisle are demonstrating real concern for our veterans' health. Let's hope they apply the same concern to why we are creating yet another generation of soldiers who are being saddled with dramatically higher incidences of death due to disease. Let's hope their outrage applies to why cigarettes are still sold on military bases around the world and let's hope they lobby with similar vigor around ensuring substantial steps are taken to assist those who wish to quit with the appropriate counseling services and medications.