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Tattoo & Medical Policy Change
1. In order to accommodate the Air Force’s growing needs policy and standard need to change. Some of the shifts in policy involve the changing of the Air Force’s standard on medical waivers and tattoo policies. Policy within the Air Force are allowed to be stricter than the Department of Defense, but are not allowed to less strict. The Air Force and most branches traditionally have been stricter and therefore have leeway on changes in policy involving medical waiver and tattoos. Former Secretary Deborah Lee Hames stated that the policy changes were part of an effort to attract and retain as many qualified airmen as possible. The policy changes are part of the Air Force’s continuing effort …show more content…
The following information will explain the changes to the Air Force’s medical policy. The medical changes involved common conditions as well as changes to the Air Force’s experimental use of marijuana policy. The Air Force review their medical accession standard after reviewing some of the most common conditions that disqualified potential candidates. The conditions that most commonly disqualified candidates included eczema, asthma and ADHD. These conditions contributed to the highest volume of request from recruiters for waivers. In accordance with the new policy mild forms of eczema will now be process for a waiver, however certain restriction may be applied to secure personal and mission safety. The changes for asthma involved using the methacholine challenge in order for applicant to with an uncertain history of asthma to prove that they are eligible. The test involved an applicant breathing in nebulized methacholine which is a synthetic component that causes the airway to constrict. Candidates that are able to pass this test will receive a waiver under the new policy. The next change to the policy involved attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Recruits who do not meet the old standard of never having taken more than a single daily dosage of medication for ADHD or not having been prescribed the medication for their conditions for month than 24 cumulative months after the age of 14 will be processed for a waiver if they are able to demonstrate that for at …show more content…
Statistic support that the policy changes that the Air Force introduced were necessary due to the trends of the United States regarding medical conditions, tattoos, and experimental usage of marijuana. Almost 70 million Americans have experiment with marijuana limiting the pool of applicants the Air Force would have if they stuck with former policies. The conditions that the Air Force previously disqualified applicants for aren’t necessarily conditions that should prohibit them from service completely just in certain roles. The tattoo policy change also helps free up the pool of applicants since nearly fifty percentage of applicants have