ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996             TAG: 9611120084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press

RAISE COST OF CIGARETTES AT MILITARY BASES TO LEVEL CIVILIANS PAY, REPORT SAYS

Selling discount cigarettes to members of the military encourages smoking and costs the Pentagon nearly $1billion a year in tobacco-related health and work expenses, according to an internal report.

The draft report by the Department of Defense inspector general urges the military to go beyond a recent cigarette price increase at commissaries and military stores and raise prices to the full market rate.

``DoD retail system pricing policies for tobacco products encourage high sales and are inconsistent with DoD goals for a healthy active-duty force,'' concludes the report, obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The report, prepared for Inspector General Eleanor Hill, praised the recent price increase as ``a positive step'' but said the Pentagon should ``go further in its efforts to reduce tobacco consumption. Prices for tobacco products should be set at prevailing commercial retail outlet levels.''

A Pentagon policy that took effect at the beginning of the month raised cigarette prices by $4 per carton at the military's 230 commissaries nationwide.

The increase still leaves cigarette prices well below market rates.

Under the new policy, for example, a carton of generic cigarettes sold at the Fort Lewis, Wash., commissary would increase to $8.89. That's still less than half the lowest price - $19.99 - the inspector general could find in the commercial retail market in that area.

The Pentagon's gross profits and surcharge revenue from the sale of tobacco products last year totaled $103million.

At the same time, smoking cost the Pentagon nearly $1billion in 1995, according to the draft report. This included $345million in work productivity lost to cigarette breaks; $1million for active-duty hospitalizations attributable to smoking; and $584million for smoking-related health care to military beneficiaries 35-85 years old.

Smoking has declined in the military, however. In 1980, 34 percent of service members were heavy smokers; that was down to 15 percent in 1995.

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