Smokers Need Not Apply

The crusade to end tobacco use claims new victories almost daily. Public and private organizations have successfully banned smoking in many workplaces. Certain localities across the nation have outlawed smoking in restaurants and bars. Last week, a story from Norway indicates that one hospital system has warned its employees that they risk being fired if they are caught smoking away from the job. And now, the Riverside County (California) Sheriff's Department has been ordered not to hire any person who smokes (Note: Florida and Massachusetts have enacted similar bans).

Riverside County wants to cut back their skyrocketing workers' compensation insurance costs, and is kicking off the effort by banning smoking for anyone who wears a badge.

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"About 17 percent of the people in California smoke, so statistically about 17 percent of the deputies that we would hire without this ban would smoke, and we hope to see somewhere in that range a reduction in workman's compensation claims," Roy Wilson of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

I don't understand the system in California, but I've always been under the impression that workman's compensation claims dealt with injuries or maladies which are work related. Problems from smoking would normally be under the purview of the health insurance benefit package offered to the employees.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Hat tip: Electric Venom