{"id":1223,"date":"2005-12-02T23:40:23","date_gmt":"2005-12-03T05:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2005-12-02T23:41:51","modified_gmt":"2005-12-03T05:41:51","slug":"who-stops-hiring-smokers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1223","title":{"rendered":"WHO Stops Hiring Smokers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, as the steady drumbeat of smoking bans has banged over and over the last several years, raise your hand if you didn’t eventually expect to see a story about an anti-smoking hiring policy<\/a>. Anybody?<\/p>\n

Smokers need not apply, according to the World Health Organization which has stopped hiring smokers as part of its campaign to eradicate the habit.<\/p>\n

“WHO has taken a very public lead in the fight against tobacco use,” said the UN agency’s spokesman Iain Simpson.<\/p>\n

The policy comes into effect Dec. 1 and all notices of vacancy will include this line: “WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or other tobacco users.”<\/p>\n

Applicants will be asked if they smoke or use other tobacco products, i.e. chewing or snuff tobacco, and if they answer “yes,” their application process will be stopped.<\/p>\n

Simpson says the ban is legal under international law, which governs operations at all UN agencies. WHO is based in Geneva but also has offices around the world including New York city. It employs 2,400 people.<\/p>\n

Staff who currently use tobacco will be encouraged to quit. They can also smoke in designated outdoor areas<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

When asked whether the agency would consider eliminating obese people or those who drink alcohol from its staff, WHO officials said smoking was more of a “black and white” issue.<\/p>\n

“There is safe sex, one can drink alcohol in a reasonable way and one can attempt eating in a balanced fashion,” said WHO official Fadela Chaib. “But with tobacco, there is no middle ground … it kills half of those consuming it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, all of the distinctions between tobacco usage and the likes of dangerous sexual practices, alcohol consumption and obesity fall apart at some level, especially when the zero-tolerance policy during the application process is taken into account. Safe sex can be had, but so can frequent and unprotected anonymous sex. Social drinking is acceptable, but will they inquire about frequent binge drinking? Sure, the obese can eat a balanced diet, but many tend to reach the obesity issue by exactly not doing that.<\/p>\n

Actually, I would have no problem in such a hiring policy being put into place by any private entity, though a lot of ways in which I feel should privately-owned business shoulld be allowed to discriminate, possibly to their own detriment, are already deemed illegal. However, I certainly would have an issue with a governmental body enacting such an arbitrary standard. That the U.N. is allowed to act outside of our laws on our soil, laws that foreign companies are subject to, is quite simply not right. Then again, that is the case of so much about the U.N.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alright, as the steady drumbeat of smoking bans has banged over and over the last several years, raise your hand if you didn’t eventually expect to see a story about an anti-smoking hiring policy. Anybody? Smokers need not apply, according to the World Health Organization which has stopped hiring smokers as part of its campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}