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Balam99
On my way!
Joined: Mar 11 2008
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 View Single Post Posted: Thu, Jun 19 2008, 1:55 AM Post subject: Employers ponder tough tactics to halt smoking
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Howard Weyers tried the "carrot" approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn't work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick.
Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees' spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.
Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing decisions based on employee participation in a legal activity. But participants in a smoking cessation forum hosted Monday by the Commonwealth Club of California found the idea nonetheless intriguing.
"We're talking about ending an epidemic. This is a global pandemic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, likening Weyers' approach to controlling an outbreak of disease.
About 45 million Americans, 4 million of whom live in California, smoke cigarettes despite more than three decades of public efforts to encourage people to quit.
California, on both the state and local levels, has been at the forefront of anti-smoking efforts with laws to ban smoking in public places. A law went into effect in January that prohibits drivers from smoking when children are in the car. Still, smoking costs the state an estimated $8.6 billion in direct medical costs and $7.3 billion in lost productivity a year, according to the California division of the American Cancer Society.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....&tsp=1
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MzBrownEyes
I can get used to this
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SoyCatracho
I can get used to this
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MzBrownEyes
I can get used to this
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ur1nonly
° i miss elmo =( °
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