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Two Central Florida hospitals say they won't hire smokers
Orlando Sentinel ^ | December 15, 2010 | Christine Show and Katie Adams,

Posted on 12/15/2010 3:17:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

If you smoke or use tobacco products — even in the privacy of your own home — you need not apply for a job at two Central Florida hospitals.

Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares and Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City will no longer hire smokers starting Jan. 1 — the first in the Florida Hospital system to enact such a policy. The hospitals will join a number of health-care facilities nationwide recently creating policies to screen out job applicants who light up.

"As a leading health-care provider in our community, we believe it important for all of our employees to model healthy behaviors," Waterman's president, Ken Mattison, said in a statement. He added that the policy is a natural progression for the hospital, which stopped allowing people to smoke on hospital grounds in 2007.

The new rule will not affect existing employees at both hospitals — they can continue to smoke off-campus, officials say, although they will be encouraged to quit through smoking-cessation programs.

(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; health; pufflist; smoking; workplace
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To: RegulatorCountry

I doubt they are requiring employees to be either
monogamous or continent.


21 posted on 12/15/2010 5:09:32 AM PST by cycjec
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To: Wolfie

But what about people who use the patch? They still have nicotine in their system without actually smoking.


22 posted on 12/15/2010 5:10:11 AM PST by nolongerademocrat ("Before you ask G-d for something, first thank G-d for what you already have." B'rachot 30b)
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To: TSgt

That was exactly my first thought. FR is invaluable for
adding other perspectives though. The hospitals aren’t
banning *smokers* they’re testing for nicotine exposure.


23 posted on 12/15/2010 5:11:29 AM PST by cycjec
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To: nolongerademocrat

Oh yeah, the ol’ “I was at a concert and got a contact high” excuse.


24 posted on 12/15/2010 5:12:34 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: ClearCase_guy

“doing the bidding of the politicians”

I think it’s simply that folks are hostile to smoking.

Banning smoking inside actually makes sense. Anything beyond that is due to people’s hatred of if.

Hitler was the first to institute non-smoking programs, by the way.

All part of the master plan. First get them healthy, then work on the eugenics.

So you see, the nazis had it right all along, they just did it too quickly! (sarc)


25 posted on 12/15/2010 5:13:20 AM PST by fruser1
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To: Wolfie

Seriously though, there are many individuals who use the patch and we even dispense the patch to patients in our hospital.


26 posted on 12/15/2010 5:16:36 AM PST by nolongerademocrat ("Before you ask G-d for something, first thank G-d for what you already have." B'rachot 30b)
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To: ObamaMustGo2012

Don’t let that comment ruin your day. I think he/she was referring to visible health care workers.

I got a chuckle out of the comment because just the other day I was visiting someone at a hospital and couldn’t get over the number of very obese employees. The patients, forget about it. They were huge too.

Some of the biggest were huddled around the corner of the building in 18f temperatures puffing on a cigarette-probably trying to keep their weight down. One was dressed in a johnny, had an IV and was in one of those oversized wheelchairs.

I suspect you work in IT, the legal department or you’re up on the executive floor. Could be you’re a physician. Other than that it’s hard to find a group that is thin. Of course your hospital may be an exception.


27 posted on 12/15/2010 5:19:34 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: fruser1
I think it’s simply that folks are hostile to smoking.

I'm not going to defend smoking, and I'm not going to deny that smoking causes health problems. But I have to point out that the single biggest reason folks are hostile to smoking is that the government has been actively brainwashing people for decades to be against smoking.

One could well say that the government is correct to do so. But we must be aware that while private businesses may ban smoking, the overall impetus for that movement really seems to stem for government action. No cigarette ads on TV? Surgeon General's warning? Secondhand smoke court cases? The government has a large role in this.

28 posted on 12/15/2010 5:26:01 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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As a smoker myself, I find this policy offensive. Why are the obese and drinkers not targeted also?


29 posted on 12/15/2010 6:10:52 AM PST by Aggie56
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To: Aggie56
...Why are the obese and drinkers not targeted also?

We're all targets!


30 posted on 12/15/2010 6:18:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: caver

I happen to be a little plump - far from obese. My days start when I leave for the hospital at 0630. I’m often at the hospital til 2200. Then its home to fall into bed and get up to do the same thing the next morning. Lunch break or dinner break to eat a healthy meal at my leisure? More like grab a sandwich or burger that can be eaten with one hand while I continue seeing patients and take care of paperwork. So I think I can easily fit an hour in the gym in that schedule somewhere - I happen to be free from 3-4 AM. Who needs sleep?

You are right. Thank you for pointing out the deficiencies in how I use my time. I should use my off time better so I can be thin like everyone else on this board! /s


31 posted on 12/15/2010 6:27:21 AM PST by Mom MD (Jesus is the Light of the world!)
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To: All

32 posted on 12/15/2010 6:50:52 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Mom MD

I sure wasn’t posting to you. I was agreeing with another poster.


33 posted on 12/15/2010 6:52:24 AM PST by caver (Obama: Home of the Whopper)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

But smoking poles and contacting HIV or AIDS is perfectly okily-dokily.


34 posted on 12/15/2010 6:52:26 AM PST by dfwgator (Welcome to the Gator Nation Will Muschamp)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

And people with asses the size of houses
shouldn’t throw chicken bones.
(MO’s “obesity” programs)


35 posted on 12/15/2010 6:54:47 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: dfwgator

A lot of nurses smoke. It’s how they get through nursing school with their nerves intact.

I guess they’ll just have to higher more foreign Muslim people to make up the difference.


36 posted on 12/15/2010 6:57:44 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: cycjec

>>The fact that they disqualify all those with traces
of nicotine may be medically incompetent, <<

I’d like to know where nicorette and e-cigs fall into this.22


37 posted on 12/15/2010 7:04:18 AM PST by netmilsmom (Happiness is a choice.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
but i thought 'the perfect was the enemy of the good' ??? /throwing up in my mouth a lil...

from the headline i thought they were discriminating against queers...8^}

38 posted on 12/15/2010 7:17:15 AM PST by Gilbo_3 (Gov is not reason; not eloquent; its force.Like fire,a dangerous servant & master. George Washington)
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To: fruser1
How much time do your non-smoking workers spend in water cooler conversation or browsing the internet?

As much time as the smokers but the smokers ALSO take smoke breaks and are sick more often which makes them LESS PRODUCTIVE.
39 posted on 12/15/2010 7:24:40 AM PST by TSgt (Colonel Allen West & Michele Bachman - 2012 POTUS Dream Team Ticket!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"As a leading health-care provider in our community, we believe it important for all of our employees to model healthy behaviors,"

So I guess this means they will also no longer be hiring people who drink alcoholic beverages?

And those who are overweight? By what measure?

And of course, they will no longer hire those who engage in risky sexual behavior, whether it be homosexual or promiscuous heterosexual?

Who will they hire, then?

40 posted on 12/15/2010 7:30:27 AM PST by onemiddleamerican (FUBO - and all your terrorist buddies, too!)
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