Quitting Tobacco in the Military: Where Service Members and Veterans Can Get Help

Military service members and veterans are more likely than civilians to smoke cigarettes, and smoking is even more common among those who have deployed overseas. Smoking raises the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and many other diseases. CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign gathers the free help available to them — and to the organizations that serve them.

Free help anyone can use

Trained quitline coaches answer questions, help build a quit plan and offer support. CDC's How to Quit Smoking page includes a quit guide.

Through military and VA benefits

Active-duty service members, veterans and their families can get cessation counseling, medicines and other services through TRICARE, Defense Department programs and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

• TRICARE — tobacco cessation coverage;
• YouCanQuit2 — a Defense Department campaign with 24/7 live chat for tips and support;
• Air Force — Tobacco-Free Living;
• Army Public Health Center — a Tobacco-Free Living Toolkit, framing quitting as a way for soldiers to stay healthier and better able to perform their mission;
• Coast Guard — a tobacco cessation program, noting that tobacco reduces lung capacity and slows operational readiness;
• Veterans — smokefree.gov for veterans.

For organizations

Groups that serve service members and their families may need to tailor their resources to this population. The campaign offers free federal materials showing how smoking affects service members and veterans and other groups in their communities.

Sources

Based on "Organizations Serving Military Service Members and Veterans," from CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a work of the United States government in the public domain.