OK - so I was off by a year or 2. As far as I know the policy has not been changed and it is being embraced by more and more companies.
As I said, I support their right to hire anyone they choose based on any criteria they choose - I just have to question the business sense of a company that immediately writes off between 20 and 25% of the workforce because they have fallen for the lies of the anti smoker industry.
Honestly it doesn’t sit well with me at all. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.