More hospitals implement tobacco-free hiring

More hospitals and medical businesses in many states are adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants because they want to “increase worker productivity, reduce health care costs and encourage healthier living”.

The new rules essentially treat cigarettes like an illegal narcotic. Applications now explicitly warn of “tobacco-free hiring”, job seekers must submit to urine tests for nicotine, and new employees caught smoking could possibly face termination.

This shift — from smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces — has prompted sharp debate, even among anti-tobacco groups, over whether the policies establish a troubling precedent of employers intruding into private lives to ban a habit that is legal. To read more about the debate and this topic, click here.

Let us know what you think! Should smoking affect your employment status?