I found this article while reading drudge this morning.  I first heard of this initiative a few years ago and was immediately interested. Will background screening include a product called “smoke screen”? No pun intended! I’m not sure where this initiative is going to go.  But rest assured, there will be litigation.

Is smoking an addiction? If so, is addiction a disability? These are the questions one must ask themselves…..I don’t know the answer. A plaintiff’s attorney may use this argument. Can you discriminate based on a disability?…I don’t think so! My crystal ball tells me you will see big court cases on this matter in the coming years.

Employers Ponder Tough Tactics to Halt Smoking

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Howard Weyers tried the “carrot” approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn’t work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick.

Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees’ spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.

Weyers’ method, while effective, wouldn’t fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing decisions based on employee participation in a legal activity. But participants in a smoking cessation forum hosted Monday by the Commonwealth Club of California found the idea nonetheless intriguing.

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