Are Jobs for Tobacco Users Going Up in Smoke?

I think that an employer has a right not to hire smokers. However companys should work with smokers and provide free programs and aids to help them quit. Also the company should charge the smoker more for insurance.

I" was" a smoker for 40 years and worked in a hospital as an RN for 20 of those years. In my experience, I think smokers took the allotted breaks the law requires them to take, whereas non-smokers didn't take their breaks at all.

I do not think it is fair at all that someone be denied employment because of their habit/addiction. It was legal when they started and has only become illegal and socially unacceptable in the last decade.
I have always wondered why the government is so wishy-washy on this. If it's illegal, then ban the tobacco industry from producing cigarettes/cigars/chew and pipe tobacco. Sadly, the tobacco industry serves to be one of the larges lobbyists in our country.

If cigarette smokers are not qualified to work because they smoke, then obese people shouldn't be qualified either....their health is at just as great a risk, add to that some are more prone to have an accident in the work place simply because of their size.

If someone is qualified, willing to work and does a good job, then it is my opinion that they should be given the same opportunity as anyone else. This IS AMERICA after all. I'm sick of the intolerance that our culture has adopted. It is truly sad.

We are a country made up of diversity because we are or once were the land of the FREE. America, the land of opportunity. No longer are we allowed to talk religion , eat junk food if we want, smoke or just be! There's always someone with a grudge to bear.

It is truly a sad state of affairs that have seeped in and permeated our great nation.

If the application says non smokers, and the employee doesn't admit smoking, then yes, it is fair for the boss to fire them. Smokers are signing thier own death warrent, so that is thier choice, they just should not endanger the health of others by working in a public place. let them go to the woods to smoke, and hope they don't start a forest fire.

I just read a research report that says there has been NO DECLINE in the number of deaths or diseases in the 20 years since smoking in the workplace has been banned. The study was based on hospital admission records for the past 20 years. I always suspected this would be the case. As with most things in life, anything done to excess will kill you. People who smoke 4+ packs per day will probably get emphysema, but there have been many documented cases of smokers living past 100 years old. Moderation is the key to avoiding problems. Too much alchohol will kill you much faster than cigarettes, as will too much fatty food or sugar. Life is going to kill you. No one gets out of this world alive.

Funny how I can sit at my desk and watch the 275 pound diabetic next to me waddle to the snack machine for another hit and no one bats an eye. And I'll bet HR would be in deep doo doo if they refused to hire her "because of health reasons".

I am old school ethics. I am a waitress. If you take a break, you are taking away from your guests/money.
I don't ever tale a break/maybe to P.
The girls who smoke, get a break, I don't. Then I have to cover their guests, while they are out smoking!
I have a problem with this.
There is one girl that I work with, Lazy and lung problems. She will take a hit off her inhaler, start hacking a lung up, then say, I will be right back, I am going out for a smoke! Does anybody feel sorry for her? No!

everyone is against smoking but companys and every other place that bans smoking the anti smokers
cant stop the government from collecting the mass tax dollars that the collect off them so why do people have the right to vote an now everyone want to stop smoking tell our government to start
just to let you know i dont smoke never have smoked and do not tell them not to smoke that why they
call us adults

Big Brother is watching! I think maybe it's time we outlawed drinking at sporting events. There are plenty who drive home a bit tipsy-I bet they cause some car accidents. Yes I smoke and I am retired. But my smoking never interfered with my job. I certainly didn't smoke in my classroom or office. Sure I went outside on my scheduled lunch. So what!

There are so many restrictions as to where a smoker is allowed to smoke, that now many people have
had to quit or cessate. Excuse me, but i thought smoking was still legal. Will it eventually get to the point that if a person lights up at the wrong time and the wrong place he or she could possibly get JAIL TIME.

Please don't criticize someone for thier choices when your own personal choices may not be much better. There are other legal addictions, habits and personal activites that can also create low productivity. How much time and productivity is lost while snackers are reaching for another pork rind, piece of candy or handful of popcorn? The smell of your popcorn or pork rinds may offend someone as well. Or what about the weekend 'sports warrior' too sore to work from the Sunday football game with the buddies? -Running slow today because no coffee this morning? That's no excuse! If you cannot function that day without your morning coffee, then you may be an addict as well and no better than the smoker with merely a different choice of drug. Many employers encourage this addiction by providing the coffee or coffee machines for employees or in the business lobby for customers too. To me, coffee stinks just as bad and smelling it brewing when I walk into a business makes me want to walk right back out. For those businesses that allow continual coffee drinking on the job, how much lost productivity is spent in the bathroom where the smoker is usually still working? -Some say smokers take more or longer breaks. Ah, too much coffee this morning? Can't wait for the scheduled break? I would also classify the coffee drinker's extra bathroom visits as bonus breaks resulting in loss productivity as well. Every smoker I've known and worked with has always waited for the scheduled break time to smoke where others may spend a good portion of the day in the bathroom... then spend more time to refill their coffee cup when they return. I worked for one employer that did not allow drinking of anything on the job... even water, perhaps in foresight of less time being spent in the bathroom by employees or to avoid wasted time spent drinking and refilling their cup instead of working. Some employers in certain jobs that do not have direct contact with the public can and do allow smokers to smoke while working with no real loss of productivity from employees stepping aside for those 10 minutes every two hours to do so. The common 'ten minute breaks' are intended for employees to be able to step away and clear & refresh their minds and/or bathroom visits for better productivity in the next two hour block. If a cup of coffee or a snack does that for you, great. For some, it may simply be another choice to accomplish that.