Employers In Massachusetts May Exclude Smokers From The List Of Job Seekers

According to a latest story published in the “Business Monday”, employers from Massachusetts are getting increasingly anxious about healthcare expenditure and loss in productivity due to sick employees who are addicted to smoking. This has prompted the employers to consider measures such as ruling out smokers from the list of job applicants.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that addiction to smoking costs the US state of Massachusetts productivity loss worth $1.9 billion and medical expenditure of $3 billion on an annual basis. Hence, an employer may consider a smoking addicted individual to be an additional responsibly and exclude him from the list of job seekers.

 

Thomas Jones, the vice president of the employers resource group for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, states that the possibility of debarring smokers from the list of job seekers has emerged as a hot topic of discussion in the business-seminar circle.  

So, addiction to cigarette smoking can be a huge disadvantage in the job market of Massachusetts.   

 

Source: masslive.com, Date: 6^th February 2013

Latest Info On Cigarette Smoking

New Study Claims Reducing Cigarette Intake Can Lower Death Risk

Date: 26^th November 2012

 

A study undertaken by Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers led to the conclusion that reduction of cigarette consumption by smokers leads to a significant decrease in the risk of death due to smoking. The researchers, namely, Dr. Yariv Gerber and Prof. Uri Goldbourt of the University’s School of Public Health and Vicki Myers of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, studied the mortality as well as survival rates of smokers and found that those who lowered cigarette consumption, gained the benefit of reducing their death risk by 15%.

 

The results obtained from the study also revealed that people, who quit smoking, lessen their chances of dying due to smoking by 22%. Thus, by quitting cigarettes, smokers are likely to gain more benefits but nevertheless, the TAU study highlights that smokers can gain huge advantages by lowering cigarette intake.

Source: http://www.jpost.com/

50% Increase In Cigarette Price Can Help Avoid 40 Lakh Deaths Caused By Smoking!

A latest report disclosed by Asian Development Bank, a multilateral funding organization, reveals that a 50% increase in cigarette prices would help in preventing 4 million (40 lakh) tobacco related deaths in India. This report also makes it known that increasing cigarette cost by 50% would help in avoiding 20 million tobacco related deaths in China. Altogether, the report discloses that 50% hike in cigarette prices would help avoid a total of 27 million (2.7 crore) tobacco related deaths in several nations, including India and China.

The report discloses that Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, India and China have emerged as the top five nations among the fifteen tobacco using countries that are responsible for two third of world tobacco use. According to the report, in India, 50% cigarette price increase results in 70-122% rise in taxes. Further, the report states that raising tobacco taxes in India and other top four tobacco consuming countries will ultimately result in lesser number of long-standing smokers and a fall in premature deaths caused by tobacco-related ailments. 

The report highlights that bidi is the general form of smoked tobacco in India. However, in the Indian subcontinent, cigarette smoking has gradually started to substitute bidi smoking. With that revelation, the report emphasizes on the need for governments to implement new cigarette tax regulations and at the same time maximize efforts to charge taxes on tobacco products on a broader basis. 

Source: The Times of India, dated 15th November 2012
Original Source: PTI