Want a Job? Quit Using Tobacco

Over in Hollywood, the old movies showed everybody and his sister smoking cigarettes. It looked so mature and debonair. The richer folks had beautiful cigarette cases and some of the women had long-handled cigarette holders. Military smoked constantly, of course, and it did a lot to promote the products that the actors held in their hands. Some older folks can even remember when smoking was hailed as a great help towards calming one down, and just an overall pleasurable experience. Cigarette commercials and their famous jingles filled the television airways and covered the highway billboards.
“Winston tastes good like a (knock knock) cigarette should.” “Lucky Strike, no strikes back!” Tareytown smokers even sported fake black eyes when they said, “I’d rather fight than switch.”

Not anymore. Since the late 1960’s the United States Surgeon General has warned that cigarette smoking can be hazardous to your health. Statements appeared on the packages warning people and laws were made to try and keep them out of the hands of minors. Unfortunately, making it an “adult-only” activity caused many young people to want to do it, so they would seem more “grown up.”

Fast forward to today, and most public places do not allow smoking. That goes for restaurants, offices, bowling alleys, and trains and buses and planes as well. It seems odd now to watch an old movie and see someone smoking on an airplane or in an office!

It seems that everyone except the actual smokers is lining up to protest the idea of tobacco in the lungs, cancer in the body, and higher health-care costs for everyone. So it should be no surprise that an article out of Dallas said that the Baylor Health Care System will no longer hire people who use nicotine, starting in 2012. They will not, of course, fire the current smokers, but in an effort to promote a healthy and smoke-free environment, they will phase out the smokers gradually.

In addition, smokers have to pay a higher premium than non-smokers do. This year the difference is only $50 – next year it will rise to $650.

This includes all forms of tobacco use: cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco. The urine screening test will even detect nicotine from e-cigarettes, patches and nicotine-type gum. The website states that, “Many other health care organizations are making the decision not to hire nicotine users as part of a broader well-being initiative.”

A Clinic in Cleveland is doing the same. Expect to see this trend spread.