job offer rescinded!

[xbrit]

I quit a 30 year 2 pack a day habit about 12 years ago, and now at work I see smokers getting a 15 minute break every hour while I only get one a day. Maybe I should start again.

[Hoarach]

Some hospitals are telling clinical nursing/med students to go elsewhere if they use nicotine. Med programs for clinicals are now including nicotine in the drug screen...

Legalized discrimination.

This exact thing happened at my school they trying say as a medical school that its tobacco free.  Bunch of nonsense considering how stressful exams can be its nice to smoke a cigar during a break.  Know some students that smoke a pipe.  Ridiculous for the school to send an email out reminding students not to smoke, not like its going change anything.

[EskimoJoe]

This exact thing happened at my school they trying say as a medical school that its tobacco free.  Bunch of nonsense considering how stressful exams can be its nice to smoke a cigar during a break.  Know some students that smoke a pipe.  Ridiculous for the school to send an email out reminding students not to smoke, not like its going change anything.

If you can't handle the stress of an exam, you probably shouldn't be in any sort of situation where another person's health and, consequently life, depend on you.
My pennies in.

[Motherland]

Smoking has many side effects. These include the physical side effects on your lungs, but also the social side effects that a lot of people won't want to be around you. This includes the fact that an employer may prefer an employee that doesn't have to take a break every hour or two, or get antsy and petulant if they don't, over one that does.
You choose to smoke, no one chooses to be black or a woman or whatever. That's not discrimination. That's choosing to not hire someone who has a habit that forces you to make special considerations for them, or less fit for their job.
You wouldn't hire someone who has a ton of traffic tickets to be a bus driver.
You probably would prefer to not work with someone who walks around with crap in their pants all day. Lots of people, and increasingly many all the time, would prefer not to work with someone who smells like stale tobacco all day.

I have a cigar now and then (in very limited situations because I don't enjoy smelling like cigar) and even a once in a while a cigarette when I'm drinking, but if you think that people should put up with habits that effect your daily routine, then that's due to a sense of entitlement that you're just going to have to deal with no one else caring about.

[Trell]

Welcome to the world.  Companies are pushing health policies to reduce their healthcare obligations.
Our company started with asking them to smoke off the offices property and then stopped hiring anyone that smokes.  I don’t believe they drug screen for it but the policy is there.

They are also pushing healthier lifestyles now like discounts to your healthcare if you get annual exams and join a gym.  They have even banned junk foods in the vending machines.

Employers have decided to do their own part to reduce healthcare costs and employee sick time

[SIK1]

I want to know where these jobs are that let smokers have extra break time. When I smoked, and even after I quit every employer I ever had gave the smokers and non smokers the same amount of breaks.

[Karnak]

Legalized discrimination.

Discrimination, from a legal standpoint, focuses on things the person has no control over.  You chose to smoke and can chose not to smoke.

[MADe]

I quit smoking over a decade and a half ago. On 911, I smoked a box. I was trapped in Manhattan and watching the attacks, I could only sit in a bar, drinking and smoking, until I was allowed to travel home.

I lost a brother to a form of lung cancer, attributed directly to smoking. He died at age 47. By the time the doctors got done with him, he could not wipe his own arse. When his insurance ran out, the health care industry ran out. After all it was his own fault, yes.......................... ....

Nicotine is a poison, 1 pin head of pure nicotine will kill you.

I feel better physically and my wallet is heavier. NYC cig tax forces cigs to over $8/pk. I would advise anyone to quit, I did it cold turkey, only way to go.
Otherwise you do not really want to quit!

Having said all that, I find it ridiculous that business's, the government are interfering in peoples lives. As long as your away from others, no 2nd hand smoke, you should be able to do what you want. Cigs are a legal commodity! Either make them illegal or STFU! The only reason for the hub bub is because the insurance industry and their profit margin. Our society could careless about each others well being, its all about money.

I enjoyed smoking, but I quit on my terms. No outside money grubbing corp, should be allowed to tell you how to live. I'll bet that car exhaust is just as deadly as 2nd hand cig smoke. Yet we still drive.

The constitution of our great nation gives us the right to the pursuit of happiness!

V-VOTE
O-OUT
T-the
E- E(i)NCUMBANT

Remove career politicians from office, otherwise we get what we deserve, TYRANNY!
I will, sadly, vote for an idiot before I will ever vote for a sitting politician again!

[RotBaron]

Discrimination, from a legal standpoint, focuses on things the person has no control over.  You chose to smoke and can chose not to smoke.

Can we use the disease model here? It works for AA.

[RotBaron]

If you can't handle the stress of an exam, you probably shouldn't be in any sort of situation where another person's health and, consequently life, depend on you.
My pennies in.

You've graduated from a nursing school or med school?  

[guncrasher]

Can we use the disease model here? It works for AA.

wow you compare being drunk to smoking, that's the same right?  smoke a cigarette and can get a DUI.


semp

[RotBaron]

wow you compare being drunk to smoking, that's the same right?  smoke a cigarette and can get a DUI.


semp

No I wouldn't compare them. Neither are diseases that one is powerless over.

It was in jest and aimed at the disease model.

[Trell]

I quit smoking over a decade and a half ago. On 911, I smoked a box. I was trapped in Manhattan and watching the attacks, I could only sit in a bar, drinking and smoking, until I was allowed to travel home.

I lost a brother to a form of lung cancer, attributed directly to smoking. He died at age 47. By the time the doctors got done with him, he could not wipe his own arse. When his insurance ran out, the health care industry ran out. After all it was his own fault, yes.......................... ....

Nicotine is a poison, 1 pin head of pure nicotine will kill you.

I feel better physically and my wallet is heavier. NYC cig tax forces cigs to over $8/pk. I would advise anyone to quit, I did it cold turkey, only way to go.
Otherwise you do not really want to quit!

Having said all that, I find it ridiculous that business's, the government are interfering in peoples lives. As long as your away from others, no 2nd hand smoke, you should be able to do what you want. Cigs are a legal commodity! Either make them illegal or STFU! The only reason for the hub bub is because the insurance industry and their profit margin. Our society could careless about each others well being, its all about money.

I enjoyed smoking, but I quit on my terms. No outside money grubbing corp, should be allowed to tell you how to live. I'll bet that car exhaust is just as deadly as 2nd hand cig smoke. Yet we still drive.

The constitution of our great nation gives us the right to the pursuit of happiness!

V-VOTE
O-OUT
T-the
E- E(i)NCUMBANT

Remove career politicians from office, otherwise we get what we deserve, TYRANNY!
I will, sadly, vote for an idiot before I will ever vote for a sitting politician again!

not sure how this matters, a company is not the government.  Unless you want them to create more regulation on how they should choose employees or not choose employees?   They offer services to their employees that cost money and have made a decision not to allow those services to increase costs at the rates they were.  this is done by creating a healthier workforce.
The only other options i see are to pay the employees less to cover the cost of healthcare,  do away with healthcare for everyone,  Or be able to do away with healthcare for that one employee.

In the current environment i do not see any other good options.

[CAP1]

someone mentioned police state seeping in......

 if it's employers, choosing to hire non-smokers over smokers, and they also include checking for nicotine in their drug testing......i don't see how that's a police state. that is me, or another employer simply making a choice of how they wish to run their busines.

 me personally, i don't give a dam one way or the other if one chooses to smoke. just don't blow your smoke in my face.

[DubiousKB]

Where do is it end?

I'm an employer, who had family members pass away from obesity complications. (EXAMPLE ONLY) 

Can I discriminate based on visually perception of health? Can I "drug" test my employees to ensure their cholesterol levels are in check? I mean it would push up my health insurance premiums so i'm justified in hiring based on my perceptions of lifestyle validity, right?

It's a legal commodity that has been proven to produce unhealthy side effects, but it's STILL LEGAL! So stop creeping towards Illegal and make it so or get off my back!

Cheese Burgers and Fries have ALSO been LINKED to health problems, but I can't socially ostracize a fat person and have it be publicly acceptable.... yet.

I can't even choose not to hire that same person (who chooses an unhealthy lifestyle of high cholesterol and fatty foods) because it would be discrimination. Furthermore, most would see this as a non-issue all-together.  Why does what I choose to eat, have anything to do with work and hiring....