A New No Smoking Zone

For the past twenty-five years, studies have shown that smoking is bad for your health. Why is it that so many people still smoke? Is it that we care so little about our bodies? Or is it that we just know we can? The government spends millions of dollars every year to promote its unhealthy effects, but it is time for the government to truly take action, by taking a step back. Employers have many restrictions on who they can and can’t hire, based on federal laws. One such law in 30, states including the District of Columbia, is the regulation on not hiring an employee because they are a smoker. Smoking employees cost the companies billions of dollars each year, the government should not have this much power in a capitalist country, and the smoker takes away the environment of the workplace, and the health of their co-workers.
As any American you know the cost of healthcare is outrageous, but healthcare isn’t the only way smoking costs in the work place. Paying for your own healthcare is extremely expensive, so most people rely on their companies to pay it for them. The higher your risk or injury, sickness or death, the more your insurance costs, so people who pay for their own health insurance, take all the steps they can to lower their risks. People, who aren’t paying for their health insurance, don’t need to do that, because they aren’t paying the high costs, their employer is paying it. A new trend has begun where employers charging smokers to pay higher premiums for their insurance, this is only a hopeful motivation to lower health care costs though says Cohen Milstein. In 2005 the American Lung Association completed a study showing just how much smoking cost employees the results were; ten billion dollars nationwide for medical bills, five billion in direct medical costs, and the other five billion in indirect costs, such as drops in productivity, this excludes the cost of hiring people for temporary positions. An additional eight billion is tacked on in maintenance costs that could be prevented with the elimination of smoking according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Having non-smoker employees will reduce smoke-related illness, and days off. On average, smokers are absent 50 percent more than non-smokers are absent says, Action on Smoking and Health. Non-smokers will also have a higher productivity because of less eye irritation, a more focused mind and more attentiveness, and the absence of smoke breaks according to action on smoking and health. Office equipment, carpets, and furniture will last longer throughout the duration of its life.(EPA) In a business you have some sort of product that you pitch to your customers, whether it be a service or something tangible you need to be presentable, with the odor that smokers emanate, it takes that present ability away. Studies show that if someone thinks you don’t take care of yourself, they don’t think you can take care of them. The product will then seem useless, or possibly even harmful, since we know smoking is an unhealthy habit. The government is costing employers, businesses, as well as technological advancement both finically, and timely. The government should remain uninvolved in the workplace in this manner.
At one point smoking at work was like your morning cup of coffee, but the times have changed, now that we know the harmful effects of smoking, as well as the harmful effects of being around smokers. The lung association of America’s studies show, that allowing workers to smoke increasing non-smokers odds of lung cancer by 17 percent, and the only way to truly lower that is to eliminate smoking all together. A 2005 study found that since New York’s state smoke free workplace law went into effect, workers are suffering fewer sore throats, runny noses and irritated eyes. The study also showed that smoking cigarettes raises the levels of dangerous chemicals inside the workplace that workers are already being slightly exposed to. Another benefit to a smoke-free work environment, that the American Cancer Society recognizes, is encouraging those who are trying to quit smoking to be able to quit the unhealthy habit, it is a hard habit to beat, so any and all encouragement can help the smoker to beat the addiction. Combining workers is harming the employer as well as other employee’s healths, only furthering the low productivity. It is not fair to punish non-smokers by forcing them to work with smokers. When health-conciseness people
Many smokers want a company to hire them even though they smoke, they argue that it is an invasion of their privacy for the company to even ask, however the government is taking away from the privacy of the company to tell them have to hire someone, especially someone who will lower productivity, and cost the billions of dollars extra in medical and maintenance expenses. The goal of the employer is to make money and make technological advances, and smokers prevent the company from reaching its full potential while endangering the lives of other employees. Workplaces nationwide are beginning to go smoke free, but what about outside of the workplace; your life does reflect your work. Employer’s need freedom to do what is best for society as a whole. It is time for the government to let companies make their own choices, especially knowing these choices are actually benefiting all of the employees as well as their families.
Works Cited
Some Sources
"Quit Smoking." American Lung Association. 2 Mar. 2008 .
"Smoking in the Workplace." American Cancer Society. 1 Mar. 2008 .
"Smoking in the Workplace Costs Employers Money." Action on Smoking and Health. 28 Feb. 2008 .