On Thursday, Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, Commander of the Navy’s submarine forces, declared that the Navy is thinking of placing a ban on smoking aboard submarines, after a yearlong medical testing revealed that non-smokers had side effects of second-hand smoke.

The policy will be effective from no later than Dec. 31, 2010.

The new policy permits individual commanders to decide whether their squads are allowed to smoke on deck while their subs are above water.

As with other branches of the military, smoking has long been a staple of Navy culture. For decades, cigarettes were even included in the emergency rations.

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Jones of the Commander Naval Submarine Forces out of Norfolk, Va., said that around 40% of the submarine sailors are smokers.

Retired Master Chief, John Carcioppolo, who is now the commander of the U. S. Submarine Veterans at the Groton, Conn., base, said that in a stress-filled milieu of a submarine, this is going to be a drastic change for smokers.

Dr. John Spangler, Professor and Director of Tobacco Intervention Programs at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, said that usually ventilation systems are not efficient in kicking second-hand smoke out of the surroundings. He quoted higher risk for respiratory diseases, heart attack and cancer as side effects.

Spangler said it might take up to three months for the sailors to quit smoking entirely.

He added that quitting smoking is a very hard job, "I would hope that the Navy would be sympathetic to those that are really struggling".