US hospitals and medical businesses are increasingly turning away job applicants based on whether or not they smoke, according to a cover story by the International Herald Tribune.

They say they want to increase worker productivity, reduce health care costs and encourage healthier living.
Such policies essentially treat cigarettes like an illegal narcotic. Applications now explicitly warn of “tobacco-free hiring”; job seekers must submit to urine tests for nicotine and new employees caught smoking face termination.
This shift — from smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces — has prompted sharp debate, even among anti-tobacco groups, over whether the policies establish a troubling precedent of employers intruding into private lives to ban a habit that is legal.
There is no reliable data on how many businesses have adopted such policies. But people tracking the issue say there are enough examples to suggest the policies are becoming more mainstream, and in some states courts have upheld the legality of refusing to employ smokers.
For example, hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, among others, stopped hiring smokers in the last year and more are openly considering the option. (pi)