military smoking pregnancy

[lyndol]

What is the name of your state? virginia


Yes I am currently 5 months pregnant in the navy and am still smoking. I have been chewed out continously and am now even being wrote up for smoking while being pregnant. From what I understand the military can not do that, that you have the choice to smoke or not. My doctor has suggested for me to cut back on smoking but even she said that they could not make me. Does anyone know if I can be officially (written ) counseled and wrote up for smoking while pregnant? If so please tell me what you know of the matter and if you have a link to official law on the matter for the military. Thank you so much and have a great day.

[BelizeBreeze]

yes you can be "wrote up" for endangering your child.

And since that's the ONLY question you asked, have fun killing your baby

[badapple40]

Inform whomever is giving you this order that you believe this order is preempted by SECNAVINST 5100.13C, located:

[URL=http://neds.daps.dla.mil/directives/5100%5F13c.pdf]http://neds.daps.dla.mil/directives/5100%5F13c.pdf[/URL]

Where conflicts arise between the rights of
nonsmokers and the rights of smokers, the rights of nonsmokers
to a smoke-free airspace shall prevail. DON policy is to
provide tobacco users with encouragement and professional
assistance to stop. The objective is to establish appropriate
environmental protective measures to ensure a safe, healthy, and
unpolluted working and living environment.
a. Individual Living Quarters Ashore. Smoking is permitted
in individually assigned family and bachelor living quarters
(BQs), and in Navy Lodge and USMC Temporary Lodging Facility
rooms designated for smoking, except when these individual
housing units are served by a common heating ventilation air
conditioning (HVAC) system. In these instances, COs must
designate sufficient nonsmoking quarters for nonsmoking members
to prevent involuntary exposure to ETS. Smoking is not
permitted in common spaces of individual living quarters.

f. Outdoor Areas. “Outdoor smoking areas” shall be
designated, when possible, which are reasonable accessible to
employees and provide a measure of protection from the elements
such as existing awnings and covered areas, overhangs of
buildings, etc.. Since ETS is classified as a “potential Class
A” carcinogen, exposure to ETS shall be reduced to the lowest
possible concentration. Smoke-break areas only should be
outdoors and away from common points of egress/out of the DON
facility and not in front of building air intake ducts. The
distance from building entry ways/egresses which smokers must
maintain is to be determined by the CO.

(b) advise all pregnant tobacco users of the health
risks to the fetus and where to obtain assistance to stop using
tobacco; and




Thus, SECNAVINST 5100.13C allows and orders that smoking be permitted in certain quarters and outdoors.

The order you are being given likely violates the SECNAVINST and is probably illegal (unless there is some other regulation out there). I need to ask a couple follow up questions PRIOR to giving you advice on what to do now:

1. Who issued the order to you and has counselled you against smoking?

2. What did the order say?

You may want to go to JAG/IG over this...

And, like Breezy said, smoking is bad, and you might just end up with a messed up kid, but... whatever, right?

[fozzy2]

If the order did not come from a military physician then it is of doubtful legality. However, be advised that you should follow the order *until* your chain of command has been convinced that the order should be retracted. Generally orders are give a vast presumption of legality until proven otherwise. Indeed, you can be punished for not following an order even if the order is not legal --- "lawfulness is not an element of the offense" of disobeying an order. The military courts can set a very high bar for what passes as "patently illegal" or that "shocks the conscience."

Just keep in mind that the sailor's loophole is often the prosecutors noose.
There are all sorts of precedents for these types of orders (orders to not drive, not drink, not associate with certain people...). While I think your superior has indeed gone too far and violated navy policy, they might argue otherwise. Pregnancy and duty is a very touchy subject, and the legal precedents aren't many.

I'd also hasten to warn that even if your superiors can't outright prohibit you from smoking, they may be *very* quick to hammer you for any related offense. Are you old enough to smoke legally? (in Alaska the legal age is 19, much to the chagrin of some young sailors). Do you smoke while sitting on your bed (often a violation of BEQ regulations)? If you smoke in an outside break area, are there specific rules on whether you should be covered or uncovered?

On a not totally unrelated note, decades ago (yikes!) we had a senior petty officer who felt that all pregnant women should be home in bed (and she was a she). When a supervisor reported she was pregnant, the senior "took away" her watch section and assigned her to a desk and a day work schedule -- which arguably could be career impacting (she was up for Chief). The battle raged....and was never really categorically answered by the Navy. To this day, I think policy is that pregnant women "may be assigned shift work." It does not say by who decides or by what standards they should decide. Likewise, the practice of doctors/medical to issue "suggestions" (instead of "orders") often drives people up the wall. Your superior may think that they are simply carrying out the wishes of your doctor (and your doctor probably doesn't want you to smoke). As an example, doctors used to "suggest" bed rest for some pregnant women in a memo to the command. The command then "ordered" bed rest. The doctor did not directly "order" it because of chain-of-command and medical ethics complications. As a matter of command policy, "suggestions" by doctors were translated into orders by the command.

[lyndol]

Yes I am over 19 even though the smoking age in virginia is 18 ( i am 24 ) yes I always smoke in my car or on the smoke deck. The issue is more like someone who is against smoking and when they found out I was still smoking pregnant they went bezerk but unfortunately for me that person is over me and got other people involved. I have gone to ask other people about this issue and they stated that the military could not punish me for smoking or make me quit.

[lyndol]

it was my immediate supervisor and yes i know smoking is bad but this is a complete insult. they gave me emi and i have to give a 1000 word essay on why not to smoke during pregnancy at staff quarters.

[badapple40]

Take this issue regarding the no smoking order to your commanding officer. Tell the CO you believe this order is illegal, and violates the SECNAVINST. Ask them to fix the situation.

If the CO does not fix it, you can then handle this with an Article 138 complaint.

[lyndol]

what exact part of the secnav. I will have to have a print out of it before I go to her and even then I do not know if that would be a wise idea due to the fact that she herself has already voiced her disagreement with me smoking.