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Joining a small number of employers nationwide, a hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn., has decided to stop hiring people who smoke or use tobacco products, the Times Free Press reports.
Starting Feb. 1, prospective employees at Memorial Hospital will be tested for nicotine as part of the existing mandatory drug screening. Nicotine gum or patches could lead to rejection.
As they said on my local Tennessee News Station last night, are they going to refuse to hire you if you drink or eat too much, too? Maybe they shouldn't hire you if you have too many traffic tickets because that means you're reckless? Maybe they should do medical tests to see if you dabble in drugs? Talk on your cell phone while driving? Have a sexually transmitted disease?
Maybe Catholic hospitals should do a medical examination or hey, check the soon to be National Health Database (the database was in the stimulus bill that has already been signed) to see if you had an abortion and refuse to hire you. How would that go over with some of you?
When they come for your vice as a deal breaker for employment, who will be left to stand up for you?
I don't smoke. I never have. Heck, I'm retired and employment is not even a factor for me. But, I can see where this is going.
You know, if you don't want people to do something on your property, that's one thing, but refusing to hire them and doing medical tests on them is ridiculous for a hospital.
Here's what the tax on cigarettes is paying for:
"Tobacco taxes are soaring to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. President Obama signed that health initiative soon after taking office."
Soooooooo, if you drastically pressure smokers to quit, oh look what flies out the window with it, the revenue that pays for Obama's health insurance for children.
I've worked at a local major hospital for over ten years now. I can tell you from first hand experience that a great many doctors, nurses, respiratory therapist, and pharmacist all are chain smokers. Our hospital recently made all it's property (outdoors) smoke free. The smokers now go outside the hospital and across the street to smoke. What's amazing is our Plant Operations (boilers, generators, HVAC), Maintenance Dept, and Clinical Engineering (repairs medical devices) do not have any smokers at all. You'd think a bunch of mechanics would be the chain smokers. Nope. It's the medical staff that are the smokers. I'd like to see the hospital in the story enforce this ban on the cigar smoking doctors who do surgery in their operating rooms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90
Good, we need to force all smokers to quit.
It is costing the rest who do not smoke of us a ton of money on our health care insurance.
Why should I pay for someone to fill their lungs with cancer?
Besides how can someone who is unhealthy take care of other sick people?
If they're going to stop hiring smokers on the basis that they cost more money to insure and are setting an unhealthy example, when are they going to stop hiring the obese, which is also overwhelmingly a self-inflicted condition?
We have a lady who is both morbidly obese and a chain smoker working in respiratory therapy. When she steps onto the elevator, it shakes. By the time she reached the old smoking area (about twenty yards from the first floor elevator) she is wheezing. We use to have a phone operator who was so heavy that her desk chair would not remain in the height position she set it at. She thought it was broken and sent it to maintenance. Maintenance couldn't find a problem. They contacted the maker and discovered it had a weight limit of 350 lbs. Above that weight, the chair would fail and drop down to the low setting. They told their supervisor who told her supervisor who called her into her office to tell her she exceeded the weight limit of the chair. She then went to her doctor for help. Last I heard, she'd lost over 200 lbs.
If they're going to stop hiring smokers on the basis that they cost more money to insure and are setting an unhealthy example, when are they going to stop hiring the obese, which is also overwhelmingly a self-inflicted condition?
don't forget the drinkers of alcohol
and the salt eaters
and the Christians
and the non-government lovers
and the one's that voted non-democrat
and the ones that eat meat
and on and on it goes......
I hope they stop people from wearing fragrance products in the hospital, too.
20% of Americans are allergic to fragrance products; they contain neurotoxins, aldehydes, known carcinogens and petrochemicals.
put on a mask or go live in a bubble
good grief, I know some of these flakes they are scary~~
I hope they stop people from wearing fragrance products in the hospital, too.
20% of Americans are allergic to fragrance products; they contain neurotoxins, aldehydes, known carcinogens and petrochemicals.
Tell me about it, I really get annoyed when people wear those *spicy* perfumes or colognes
There may be a small number of employers in TN not hiring smokers, but nationwide this is not an unusual practice.
Although there are good reasons for not hiring smokers, my feeling is that smokers should be able to do what they please on their own time.
I'm not a smoker, but I get very uncomfortable when the gov't involves itself in individual rights.
I hope they stop people from wearing fragrance products in the hospital, too.
20% of Americans are allergic to fragrance products; they contain neurotoxins, aldehydes, known carcinogens and petrochemicals.
If someone knows they are allergic to perfumes and colognes then they should make the effort to be pro-active to protect themselves. They shouldn't expect the rest of the country to change for their protection. People are allergic to peanuts. I'm not going to stop eating peanuts or peanut butter. Our hospital still serves and sells peanut based products even though more people are deadly allergic to peanuts than people who imagine they're allergic to an odor. A hospital can tell it's employees to not wear perfume or cologne but they can't tell their visitors (who number in the thousands a day) not to wear perfume or cologne. Get over it.
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Don't get me wrong, I agree with you 100%, but this is a liberal viewpoint.
