The University of Pennsylvania recently announced that beginning July 1, they will no longer hire smokers to work in their healthcare system. The university believes the hiring policy will help save lives and positively impact societal norms.
Dr. David A. Asch penned an article in the New England Journal of Medicine commending the approach, saying the hiring policy can help prospective employees take greater responsibility for their health.
“We believe that the severe harms of smoking justify moving higher up on the [intervention] ladder when lower-rung interventions don’t achieve essential public health goals,” said Dr. Asch and collogues.
Dr. Harald Schmidt, who works with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, said the measure seems counterintuitive to the hospital’s basic principle to care for all individuals.
“It seems paradoxical for healthcare organizations that exist to care for the sick to refuse to employ smokers,” said Dr. Schmidt. “Many patients are treated for illnesses to which their behavior has contributed, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, diabetes, and infections spread through unprotected sex or other voluntary activities.”
Despite being on opposite sides of the fence in regards to the hiring ban, both doctors agree that smoking has serious health and financial consequences. Asch and colleagues noted that 440,000 individuals die each year from tobacco-related issues, while Dr. Schmidt added that companies spend roughly $4,000 in insurance and health-related costs per year on employees who smoke.
Beneficial or Unfair?
As new health standards continue to cross into related sectors (most notably, calorie counts on menus and weight loss programs in the workplace), many industries are looking for ways to improve the health of their customers and their employees.
The first medical center to adopt the non-smoker hiring policy was Cleveland Clinic in 2005. Survey data conducted four years after the ban was put in place revealed some positive trends, including:
- Smoking rates in the county where the clinic is located fell from 20.7% to 15%
- Statewide smoking rates decreased from 22.4% to 20.3%.
While the statistics show some encouraging results, Dr. Schmidt and colleagues said the ban disproportionally affects some socioeconomic groups, including:
- The unemployed (45% of unemployed individuals smoke)
- The undereducated (32% of those who did not obtain a college degree smoke, while only 13% of college graduates smoke)
- Certain ethnic groups (42% of Native Americans smoke, while only 8% of Asian females smoke)
- The poor (36% of people below the poverty line smoke, while 22.5% of people above the poverty line smoke)
Dr. Silverman comments
I’ve spoke numerous times on the dangers of smoking. Smoking causes nearly 500,000 deaths each year, which is unfathomable in today’s day and age.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the hiring practice, I hope this article and related stories we’ve blogged about opens people’s eyes to the dangers of smoking. Please, put down the cigarette.
Related source: MedPage Today, New England Journal of Medicine