Florida Hospital no Longer Hiring Smokers...Applicants to be Tested For Nicotine

[brian64]

IMO, this is a trend we’ll likely see more of throughout the corporate world.
Bert Fish Medical Center: Smokers need not apply
http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130822/BUSINESS/130829800/1024?Title=Bert-Fish-Medical-Center-Smokers-need-not-apply

 

[allan]

In reading the article, it is pointed out that this hospital does not also discriminate against those who drink, drive a motorcycle, eat junk food, etc
This policy is plain wrong, pure and simple

 

[dochudson]

right or wrong it's old news.. hospitals in central ohio haven't hired smokers in a couple of years. plus the tobacco free campus. kind of sad to see patients with IV poles and/or in wheelchairs out on the other side of the road smoking.

 

[wayneteipen]

A large hospital network in Indianapolis enacted a "third hand smoke" policy a couple years ago. You can be sent home if you show up to work smelling like tobacco smoke. The anti-everythings are winning. :x

 

[jah76]

Yeah I'm labelled a high health risk by my employer if I tell them I'm a smoker and they offer tons of classes and programs to quit. Yet we have to fight for months and months to get things like new fall arrest systems and training for our guys.
Supposedly there's money to get people to stop smoking but not to stop them from hitting the ground after they fall off a roof.
Heh. Wayne I'm sure I've slept on a couch in that hospital network a million times.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I can see why a hospital wouldn't want to hire a cigarette smoker. God only knows when they'd get a craving and NEED the chemicals that are in the paper. Some cigarette smokers twitch as bad as crack heads until they get their next cig. I've never seen a cigar/pipe smoker get the shakes until their next stick or bowl.
Honestly I don't think nicotine is the problem. Personally I'm convinced it's the chemicals added to the paper. I've had to put my pipe down for a few weeks because of having the flu or something and I've never gone through withdrawals.
I find it sad that cigars and pipes get lumped in with cigarettes. They're completely different animals.

 

[pitchfork]

I'm glad this was posted. It is indeed part of a larger trend -- government and corporations working to control our behavior, not just smoking. While I'm sure many of us are of a libertarian/free-market bent, politically, we have to remember that just because an institution is "private," it doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to actions and policies like these. (My two cents.)

 

[oldman]

I find it sad that cigars and pipes get lumped in with cigarettes. They're completely different animals.

Agreed LOTPR

 

[joeahearn]

"Dr William Stewart Halsted (1852 - 1922) is known as the father of American surgery. He pioneered the cancer saving operation, the mastectomy, at a time when cure from the disease was unknown. He popularised the use of rubber gloves in the operating theatres and introduced several other important advances in surgical technique including improved blood transfusion. He used daily morphine for most of his long life."
But if he had smoked--the horror!

 

[flmason]

Back in 1987 FL gave a 5% decrease on Workers Comp insurance for drug free workplace. You could be tested at anytime. Insurance companies charge less for non smokers so it might be a way to save on insurance premiums. Most employers have a cost sharing plan for medical insurance.
Another aspect could be the smell of smoke that remains in hair and on clothes could harm a patient in bad health.
Just my thoughts. Other opinions will differ

 

[cavendish36]

It makes you wish that FL smokers would unite and sue the hospital for discrimination. Where is the ACLU when it really matters?

 

[drwatson]

Welcome to the start of the Fourth Reich!

 

[rmason]

If the hospital is trying to be a role model why are they not testing the employees they hired before they went tobacco free, since tobacco is such an evil and no one should ever smoke it according to these crazies. Also does anyone else feel like tobacco users are being treated like meth heads how we get looked on by the public eye as addicts and offered this free counseling and therapies to us and our familys to help us stop?

~Ron

 

[brian64]

Really good and interesting comments from everyone. Can you imagine the revolt if this policy was applied to caffeine?

I'm glad this was posted. It is indeed part of a larger trend -- government and corporations working to control our behavior, not just smoking. While I'm sure many of us are of a libertarian/free-market bent, politically, we have to remember that just because an institution is "private," it doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to actions and policies like these. (My two cents.)

Well said pitchfork, I couldn’t agree more. I am very much a libertarian, and to me, libertarianism is all about principle. With most issues it’s fairly simple and straight-forward to apply libertarian principles to, but at times it is more complex, and not all libertarians agree on everything. I see the core problem here, as with many other issues, to be the politicization of science. Policies such as this one always use “science” as the justification...and the government and foundation funding behind establishment science comes with many strings attached.
IMO, it’s difficult to overstate the extent to which modern establishment science is used to dictate an immense amount of control over so much of our lives, beliefs and choices. Unless we as a society somehow manage to get more honesty and accuracy out of what we call science, many of the biggest problems we face will only continue to get worse...most of which make the problem we’re discussing here pale in comparison.