Poll: Should employers be allowed to put policies in place that ban the hiring of smokers?

More and more employers nationwide are implementing smoke-free employee policies, according to USA Today .

The policies ban not only smoking at the workplace, but at any time by employees.

Twenty-nine states, including Kentucky and Indiana, have passed smokers’ right laws to prevent this type of policy, according to the article , but in states that have not passed such laws, including Ohio, employers are opting for an entirely smoke-free workplace.

The idea is that not having smokers on staff will decrease insurance costs and increase productivity, the article says, because smokers require more medical costs and take more breaks.

There is no official data on employers banning smokers, but Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a non-profit offshoot of the ACLU that opposes the hiring bans, told USA Today the trend seems most prevalent in hospitals.

Do you think employers should have policies that preclude hiring smokers? Let us know what you think by taking our poll.