Smoke-free hiring may catch on with more firms Battles over rights expected if off-duty rules are included Melissa Burden March 14, 2011 Hospitals and health systems nationally may be leading the charge to only hire nonsmokers and nontobacco users, but experts say expect to see more private companies go this route, too. But the trend will meet resistance from workplace rights advocates who say companies shouldn't meddle in what employees do when they are off work. "Almost certainly this trend will continue to spread and also will continue to be more widely accepted by the public," said John Banzhaf, professor of public interest law at George Washington University Law School and executive director of the Action on Smoking and Health, an antismoking organization. Workplace rights advocates say the anti-smoker policies are discriminatory. "It's not right for employers to tell employees what to do when they're off-duty," said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute. Hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic and Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester have adopted policies to hire only nontobacco users. An Okemos company made national headlines in January 2005 when it fired four employees who refused a smoking breath test. Weyco Inc., a medical benefits administrator that has since been acquired by Meritain Health, launched a policy banning employees' tobacco use at work and off the clock. Michigan is not among the 29 states with laws prohibiting employers from discriminating against smokers. An estimated 20.6 percent of U.S. adults smoke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Employers, though, are seeking tobacco-use bans because of the high costs of insuring smokers, Banzhaf said. Several companies nationally and in Michigan have passed on $50 to $100 monthly surcharges to employees and sometimes spouses who smoke. Smoking is blamed for contributing to $3.4 billion in health care costs annually in Michigan and $3.95 billion in productivity losses, according to the CDC. The American Cancer Society and American Lung Association don't hire tobacco users. In 2005, Kalamazoo Valley Community College launched a policy not to hire full-time employees who use tobacco products to help curb health insurance costs, spokesman Michael Collins said. "If we can reduce the number of claims, it has a direct impact on our health insurance premiums," he said. Employees at the time were grandfathered in and the policy doesn't apply to part-time hires, Collins said. But a part-timer who smokes would not be hired or transferred into a full-time job, he added. The college relies on information on the job application. "We've had a couple of instances where we have found that they did use tobacco products, and they were terminated for that," Collins said. The idea has caught on outside Michigan. Some police forces in Ohio have adopted similar policies to control health care costs, and Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has a nicotine-free hiring policy, said Shelly Kiser, director of advocacy for the lung association in Michigan and Ohio. Union Pacific spokesman Thomas Lange said the railroad hires only nonsmokers where it can by law. And even the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden will hire only people who pass a drug and tobacco test.