Keeping veterans smoking: How the tobacco industry used front groups to lobby Congress to mandate smoking lounges in veterans' facilities

When, in the late 1980s, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sought to disallow smoking and tobacco sales in all VA facilities, the tobacco industry mobilized to prevent what it feared might lead to a service-wide smoking ban. It hired consultants to create a "grass roots coalition" of veterans to oppose the policy and allow the industry to play a less visible role. Arguing that it would be unpatriotic to deny veterans one of the "freedoms" they had fought for, while dismissing tobacco's deadliness, veterans' service organizations (VSOs) and industry lobbyists successfully influenced Congress to pass a law requiring every VA facility to provide an indoor smoking lounge. Civilian public health advocates should collaborate with VSOs and military public health advocates to expose the industry's behind-the-scenes manipulation, reframe the debate, and repeal the law.