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Smokers First; Obese Skydivers Could Be Next

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By TOM JACKSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 29, 2008

There is much to deplore about the practice of smoking cigarettes, including the likelihood the vile habit played a role in the too-early deaths of silver-screen giants Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Lon Chaney, Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner.

There is, furthermore, much to be said for the proliferation of laws that put the sensibilities of nonsmokers - primarily, not to be forced to smell like smokers - ahead of the twitchy hunger of nicotine addicts.

The uncertain science of secondhand smoke dangers notwithstanding, reasonableness may even pertain to prohibitions against adults smoking in cars in which children are passengers.

And the practice of employers providing incentives and/or assistance to help employees become ex-smokers should be praised and encouraged. It improves the employees' health prospects, expands their disposable incomes and has a salutary effect on the employers' bottom lines.

Given this symbiosis, This Space applauds Pasco County's modest move toward developing a healthier workplace - a $20,000 stipend from Aetna, its new medical insurance carrier, for wellness programs that could include help with cigarette butt-kicking.

Drawing Line On Healthy Choices

So far, so good. I mean, the county already endorses a policy of hostility toward smokers, banishing them not only from its buildings - as the state constitution demands - but pushing them away from the doorways and, oftentimes, into weather that is not always accommodating to whatever enjoyment is supposed to accompany lighting up.

If it can help its employees emerge from the pariah class, so much the better.

But we are less optimistic regarding Commissioner Michael Cox's thoughts about taking the next, presumably logical, step: making smoke-free living a requirement for new hires.

Cox's ambition - to promote healthy choices among staff members while shepherding taxpayer dollars - is laudable. But his position raises issues.

Although smoking is a wretched, dirty, foul, health-sapping habit that long ago lost its cachet for cool, it is a legal pastime employing a legal product. If the county can ban, over concerns about insurance premiums, the employment of applicants who legally use a legal product, who else might it decide to reject?

What About Obese Skydivers?

Skydiving, a legal activity with many practitioners in Pasco, worries insurance companies. Scuba diving, also legal, is not without measurable risk. What about motorsports participants? Dirt bikers?

Also legal and, anymore, more socially acceptable than smoking: wooing and winning multiple sexual partners. This, too, can be medically hazardous. Does the county imagine a policy of monogamy or celibacy?

What about fatties? If the county, or any employer, can ban smokers in the name of a healthy work force, are the hefty - who invite diabetes, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, certain cancers and a dozen other costly, debilitating conditions - next?

It's like this: The moment you adopt a policy that excludes, even for praiseworthy reasons, employment of a specific cohort that elects legal, if unwise, practices, the door swings open to reveal countless others making lawful, if worrisome and costly, choices.

What say you to them, Commissioner Cox?

Columnist Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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