This didn’t take long. The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health has a job opening for a webmaster. It’s open to any qualified candidate, with one exception: smokers aren’t welcome. You can probably guess the justification:
[QCTH president Mario] Bujol also cites the other costs employers must incur when an employee smokes, as well as the public health issues surrounding second hand smoke and the toxic fumes that settle on smokers even after they have butted out, often called third hand smoke, as reasons why it is fair to limit job placement based on smoking status.
I defend the right of private organizations to discriminate against smokers for the same reason I support bar owners’ rights to host a smoking environment. Freedoms of contract and association trump the desire to impose a uniform standard. What’s troubling here is the abuse of junk science to justify a policy that’s really motivated by nothing more than anti-smoker bigotry. There’s absolutely no evidence that remnant smoke particles harm anyone, especially adults working in a smokefree office environment. Just as public health arguments allowed to smoking ban advocates to impose their preferences onto others in a socially acceptable way, the shoddy third hand smoke study has opened the door for discriminating against smokers under the veneer of sound science.
The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health is financed in part by the government, opening the door to a legal challenge. It will be interesting to see what kind of debate that stirs up. Should groups that receive taxpayer money be allowed to discriminate against the smokers who fund them?
[Via Michael Siegel.]
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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