Hospitals Shift Smoking Bans to Smoker Ban

[actourdreams]

Smokers now face another risk from their habit: it could cost them a shot at a job

Comments

[bookwormmel]

I know the Cancer Council of Victoria has a similar policy on the basis of they actively try and encourage people to quit and its hypocritical for their employees to do so. I think it's a difficult situation and I don't know where I quite sit with it.

[rayiroth]

It's one thing to encourage people to quit, it's something else to ban smokers from getting an employment.

[chibi_lurrel]

Well I can see why medical businesses and hospitals would want to turn away qualified applicants, since we totally have enough nurses.

[kerrypolka]

A+++++++

[wind_hover]

This.

[celtic_thistle]

ikr

[bowtomecha]

this is going too far.

i do think that they should raise the amount smokers have to pay into their company health insurance for themselves; offer a program to help them quit thats priced low or free as an incentive and reduce their rates once its established that they've been smoke free. i'm guessing most places do this.

[lickety_split]

offer a program to help them quit thats priced low or free as an incentive and reduce their rates once its established that they've been smoke free. i'm guessing most places do this.

Where do you live?

[bowtomecha]

los angeles.

[julieannie]

I guess the reasons I've heard are also about third-hand smoke and transfers. In my area, when I was getting chemo treatments there were still doctors and nurses smoking outside my cancer center. When the first of the year rolled around and the ban for outdoor smoking went in place, you stopped seeing the bodies but you still saw the butts. When a nurse would come over and change your IV or chemo bag and the stench of smoke followed, it was awful. The nurses were banned from having long nails or wearing perfume but the smoke smell just lingered and with hypersensitive smell from chemo, it made me nauseous. So I guess I just don't feel so bad about this.

[thelilyqueen]

Yup. I react badly to even lingering smoke, and what you're describing is the last thing I'd need if I was already feeling cruddy.

[anjak_j]

Totally agree with you. I'm really sensitive to cigarette smoke - just like the fumes of certain perfumes give me asthma attacks, so do the fumes from the smell of smoking on people's clothes. As a rule, I don't tend to feel bad about anything that reduces my exposure to something that endangers my life on a daily basis.

[jewelsavalon]

I'm 100% okay with this. My mom has 50% lung capacity from 2nd hand smoke and is extremely allergic to even 3rd hand smoke (as am I). Her airways constrict and everything. It was absolutely horrible when she would get nurses (and doctors) while in the hospital, who instead of helping her get better actually made her feel worse.

[schmiss]

So basically it's the same principle behind "pre-existing conditions". There are a lot of things that could raise health costs and/or decrease productivity. Chronic disease, weight problems, etc.