Cleveland Clinic will not Hire Smokers

Actually, the Constitution does have something to do with it. You were suggesting that women who have had abortions not be hired because of an alleged correlation with higher rates of other unpleasantries. Asking applicants or employees for this piece of information is prohibited by law. Constitutional law. Ditto with the STDs for men. Ditto with a plethora of behavior induced health troubles. Not ditto, apparently, with Cleveland Clinic's decision. They clearly feel that they are on solid legal ground and there are precedents for their decision. I'm sure it will be challenged. So be it.

Sorry, but being fat doesn't endanger patients! Smoking does. Our hospitals in our area are all going smoke-free July 4th and I'm glad.

Yeah, I've yet to hear a report about second-hand excess weight.

Oh, wow, you mean they were smoking in the patients rooms, or the hallways or what? How were the smokers endangering their patients?
By carrying an unpleasent odor?

Smoking is dangerous to your health, no one should smoke. But it is still legal, and if someone wants to do it they should not have their employment endangered as long as they are not endangering others.

Come on, with the intent of "we're modeling what we think is appropriate healthy behavior." the next thing is to not hire overweight people, or those who drink alcohol.

This is simply another example of the steady erosion of personal rights in this country. The liberal left seems to always know what is better for others and to force that on the population as a whole.

Let me take care of myself in my personal life, if what I do is endangering others than put a stop to it, but if it is only myself than that is my right in this country to do so.

There is a difference between telling people where they can smoke vs. IF they can smoke. I think daily and routine smoking is a vile disgusting habit, and inconsiderate of others (as smokers toss their butts out the window, bouncing them off my car, and scatter their debris anywhere that suits them), but I also believe that people should have the right to smoke as much as they want.

But there is a remarkable hypocrisy is some support the decision to discriminate against smokers when it comes to employment, but oppose discrimination against other people who have engaged in equally risky behavior that also has proven predisposition to costly medical problems later on. No-one liked the previous comparison and were easily distracted, but here's another one; it's legal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet...a practice protected BY LAW (I believe in Ohio), just like smoking, but what do you think would happen if the Clinic decided to refuse employment based on whether or not the employee wore a helmet when they rode their bike? Or what if they refused employment to motorcycle owners?

I only believe that consistency is required.

And there are jobs (including nursing jobs) that 'discriminate' on the basis of weight, and other even more uncontrollable physicial factors such as height, and they do so legally. But they don't do it because of health-risk factors, but because of function; i.e. some places restrict their flight nurses to specific heights and weights.

RE: not hiring smokers. I think if they are going to do this for nurses then they should require a total ban on hiring any smokers in the entire hospital. This includes doctors, receptionists, etc...it shouldn't just be against nurses. And by the way I think it is mean thing to do because smoking is for some more addictive than heroin. They should provide cessation treatment for all hospital employees if they really want a smoke free staff.

That's not what is happening; these people are not denied employment because of their ability to perform the functions, but because of the limitations of the facilities. A 6'5" 250 lb RN could be fantastic at the job in a larger aircraft with one employer, but denied employment at another employer who uses a smaller aircraft with decreased lifting capacity. It can and does happen, and has nothing to do with employee performance.[/QUOTE]

I don't think your comparison of the motorcycle helmet is any more apt than the other comparison, which shall go unnamed, because again, it isn't something the average patient would have any way of knowing. Any more than they could look at their nurse and say ''Aha. They are modeling unhealthy behavior by the reproductive choices they have made''. They do have a way of knowing whether a person smokes or not, though.