More and more hospitals are implementing policies that allow job applicants to be turned down for positions based on whether or not they smoke. These policies, say officials, encourage healthier living and reduce health care costs.
In the last year alone, hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas stopped hiring smokers, The New York Times reports. In some cases, existing employees were also instructed to quit smoking.
Some companies that have adopted the policy test for nicotine while others operate on an honor system. At some hospitals, employees who are caught smoking face termination.
Critics of anti-smoking policies say that it interferes with the private lives of employees who are not doing anything illegal.
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