What’s he on
about now you may be saying. Yeah, you are right; my header is just a
smokescreen to launch a quite different slant on the smoking debate. It is
related to a report today that some of New Zealand’s largest hospitals are considering
asking prospective employees whether they are smokers. One can only assume that
they will take this into account when they make a decision about employing
those people who admit to smoking.
The hackles
are up amongst not just smokers, but others who use this as a reason to question
the legality of the move and the issue around human rights. We have all heard
the debates over the years about the right of those who don’t smoke to have
access to clean smoke-free air. We have also seen hospitals slowly make their domains
smoke-free. This latest proposition just goes the final step.
Should
people who work in the health system be subject to be exclusion from employment
if they smoke? Does it affect their job performance? Should they present as examples
of good health, simply because they work in the health system? Surely that
would be tantamount to saying that all teachers should not drink, smoke or engage
in other health or morally ‘questionable’ activities.
In other words,
where do we draw the lines? We must be consistent. I far prefer the other
strategies related to lowering the number smokers in society. Taxing the products
and continuing education thrusts, for the most part is achieving the overall
gaol, slowly but most definitely. Yes’ there are some groups in New Zealand
where such progress is slow, but some of them may eventually be forced to stop,
because the costs related to smoking are becoming so high.
One final
point must be made. If one was asked whether they smoked, would they not say ‘no,’
and then carry on as usual, well away from their pace of work? Would they then possibly
live in fear that a workmate or employer might see them outside a local café,
happily smoking away? Maybe that fear will have the flow-on effect of chasing these
pesky smokers away from cafes too, leaving the rest of us to enjoy clean air
and having to go inside the café on hot days in order to escape our tormentors.
Oops. Sorry, I k now have just offended many people I know. Yes, I do suffer from
your damn smoke as it drift across from where you are sitting, Damn it, you don’t
even try to figure out which way the wind is blowing. There I have had my vent
on that subject.
As for the
hospital banning---get real, those in position to make this decision.
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