The incidence of smoking goes up 39.4 percent from induction day to the day of a soldier's release, according to a joint study of several Israeli universities in collaboration with the medical corps of the Israel Defense Forces, published on Monday in Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
The researchers questioned more than 29,000 soldiers between 1987 and 2011. About 18 percent of those who did not spoke when they went in smoked when they came out while 12.4 percent who smoked when they went in quit by the time they left. The study concluded that "Former smokers were at greatly increased risk of initiation and should be targeted for relapse prevention. Military service represents a golden opportunity for tobacco control," and said the United States model for military tobacco control should be emulated.