I have no problem requiring smokers to go outside or any other reasonable attempt to protect non-smokers from being around second hand smoke. I believe it should be a business owners decision but as of now it is not. Most smokers have complied without complaint. But to deny a person a job because that person smokes is outlandish. I know corporations who charge smokers 'insurance penalties' ranging into $1000's extra each year. Smoking indeed is a privilege, certainly not a right, but to ostracize a person for using tobacco is wrong on many different levels. Smokers are not the scourge of the earth as they are often portrayed. They aren't a drain on society. They contribute great amounts of money in special taxes. If they discriminate against smokers through hiring practices now, who will be next -overweight people? Will you soon have to have a BMI less than the government claims is normal? Aren't obese people more prone to all sorts of disease than their thinner counterparts? Will your pre-employment drug screening consist of a Twinkie test? What about single parents? Are they not more apt to have attendance issues? If you have high blood pressure, aren't you an additional risk? The list could become very long. Sure, restrict smoking anywhere it may impact non-smokers. Create a tobacco free business or campus if you will. But to not hire a person strictly because that person uses tobacco may set a precedent that we don't need set.

I agree Billy but it's to late the damage has already been done.

Hammonds is an idiot.

Billy said it better than I could have!

Charles Kirby should take up smoking. It would help him lose weight.

To Billy, the diseases that you mentioned ONLY affect the person who has the disease or negative situation. Their obesity, marital status, high blood pressure, etc. isn't a threat to strangers who are sitting or standing around them - tobacco smoke is disgusting, nasty, and potentially lethal.

Mark, You missed the point. I agree with smoking restrictions. I don't agree with hiring practices based on tobacco use.

Nurses wearing scrubs ...size XX take notice,weight restrictions are coming soon. "We want to be ambassadors of good health for our patients,"

Well here's the way I see it and have had the pleasure of being on the wrong end of it. I have no problem with the hiring practices Because I worked at a place that gave you a 20 min lunch and two 15 min breaks, However the smokers would get those same breaks and three to four more " Smoke Breaks " I didn't get smoke breaks so I had to do my work and the work of my co-workers this cost the companies money for not being as productive as they could have been and it also left a bad taste in my mouth for the simple reason I was more productive but yet those that weren't were rewarded with more breaks. That Addresses the smokers. Now the Smokless tobbacco users Most of you leave a area or your enviroment around you for others to clean up that could only be described as a squalor you always have some sort of transparent spiting vessel that is sickening watch the user deposit his toxic laden spit. And if its not that then they leave there bottle behind for someone else to despose of or you will think nothing of rolling that cud out of you mouth and throw it on the floor and leave it for us to walk through and carry it home with us and tranfer it from our shoes to our hands.

I know everyone here has experienced the following have you ever went to pump gas and right where you have to get out of your car the previous user clean his car out of the spit and cuds right where you have to step no less than five feet from a garbage can!!! REALLY!!!!! Oh Yeah he didn't do that before he got Oh NO he did it after he used the clean walkway and left it soiled out of Malice.

So in closing of my rant I wouldn't mind seeing a ban on sales of tabacco products with in the city or the business that sells them must also allow the use of it with in there store.

Mark.,,,, I Agree With You

I believe somewhere like a hospital or doctor's office has a right to not hire smokers. I have been in a hospital before in which the nurse taking care of me obviously smoked, as you could smell it all over her. I don't smoke and can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke, so the last thing I wanted to smell while recovering from major surgery was the stench of it on any of the healthcare professionals taking care of me.

Did I hear someone say Gary Hammon is an idiot? You must know him.

Smoke on a person stinks enough to gag a maggot. More deaths are caused by smoking than guns. So why not ban cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and throw in chewing tobacco as good measure. Four times more deaths by smoking than guns. How that?