In-depth coverage
The Springfield News-Sun provides unmatched coverage of issues that effect jobs and the economy in Clark and Champaign counties, including digging into unemployment rates and skill gaps in the local workforce.
A Clark County commissioner suggested the county — one of the biggest local employers — consider stop hiring smokers or increase health insurance premiums for tobacco and nicotine users.
The county wouldn’t be the first local employer to do so. Community Mercy Health Partners, also one of the biggest employers in Clark County, has had a tobacco-free campus since 2008 and hasn’t hired or rehired smokers or tobacco users since 2012.
But a workplace rights advocate argue the non-smoking policies stretch too far into what employees do in their private time.
Clark County employs about 900 people. County Commissioner John Detrick said he would advocate for the policy change, and that there are pros and cons to the proposal.
He acknowledged that some good employees are smokers and that it might give some of them extra creativity.
“The downside is much greater and as an employer you are going to have lost time from hiring smokers and your potential health risks down the road for your hospitalization insurance is going to be increased,” Detrick said.
Scotts Miracle-Gro based in Marysville and Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood casinos in Columbus and Toledo also ban the hiring of smokers. Employees there cannot smoke at work or in their private lives.
Other hospitals in the region also don’t hire smokers or those who use tobacco products, including Kettering Health Network, Premier Health Partners and Dayton Children’s Hospital, said Bryan Bucklew, president and CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.
The goal is that the best case medical protocol is practiced by the practitioners, Bucklew said.
“Before the smoking ban we used to see hospital employees with hospital badges outside of the hospital smoking,” Bucklew said.
More hospitals might adopt similar policies, he said.
Community Mercy Health Partners, which operates Springfield Regional Medical Center, adopted the policy to promote quality care, improve employee health and prevent disease, spokesman Dave Lamb said. It also offers current employees who smoke cessation programs.
“Community Mercy Health Partners is committed to promoting quality health care, which includes the prevention of disease,” he said. “With this commitment comes the responsibility of providing a safe and healthy environment and to that end, all CMHP facilities and campuses have been tobacco- and smoke-free since 2008.”
The policy minimizes the risk of adverse health effects to patients, visitors, physicians, employees and volunteers, Lamb said, as well as reduces the risk of fire.
Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a nonprofit spinoff of the American Civil Liberties Union, is against banning the hiring of smokers.
He began seeing companies adopt such policies in the early 1990s, but said the majority of businesses haven’t followed suit.
“Fortunately most employers realize this is a bad idea,” Maltby said. “There are very, very few employers that have this kind of policy. There are a handful of hospitals around the country and for some strange reason a few casinos. But it’s not a mainstream idea.”
The practice intrudes into the private lives of employees and could lead businesses to not hire the best candidates.
“The unspoken assumption in all this is we can reject the best candidate for the job and we can get someone else just as good. You won’t,” Maltby said.
Maltby acknowledges the policy has economic benefits as smokers cost more in health care than non-smokers. But hiring someone less qualified for the position can cost much more.
“Employers get to make the rules while you’re at work,” he said. “But they’re not supposed to tell you how to run your private life … Everybody does something that’s bad for their health. You could run down the list. Tobacco is not good for you, but neither is junk food or alcohol or maybe even red meat.”
The city of Springfield doesn’t have a smokers ban, but offers wellness programs to help workers kick the habit. Mayor Warren Copeland said he’s never thought of adopting such a hiring policy for the city.
“I come from a family where I was the only non-smoker,” he said. “I understand all the health issues and I also understand that it’s really hard to give up.”
County Commissioner Rick Lohnes said he hasn’t formed an opinion. He questions if a government agency can compel employees to submit to a blood test for nicotine and said the policy could be too hard to enforce.
County Commissioner David Hartley also said he needs more information. Hartley, who smoked for 39 years before quitting, said he may consider higher insurance premiums for smokers, but questions whether the costs of adding such policies might outweigh the benefits.
Smokers cost private employers nearly $6,000 per year or more, including for productivity losses from breaks and absenteeism, said Micah Berman, assistant professor of Public Health and Law at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Currently 29 states have smoker protection laws, but not Ohio.
“ We have a lot of employment discrimination laws in place to protect against the type of discrimination that most people would find objectionable. Tobacco is a modifiable behavior that is responsible for a huge amount of costs, not just to the employer, but more importantly to people and to society, so I think there is a reasonable basis for making a distinction there,” Berman said.
Government entities have imposed higher insurance premiums on smokers and are offering wellness program to help employees quit. But Berman hasn’t seen many ban the hiring of tobacco users.
“More employers are going to keep looking at it, but I think it’s going to be a slow process,” Berman said.
About the Author