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Butt out

Companies are stamping out smoking to cut their medical costs and protect the health of employees

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo illustration by Dan Gross Kari Appler of Danya, a health communications company, would like to see a smoke-free Maryland. She was a smoker for 10 years. Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette

In an effort to trim health care costs and shield employees and customers from the effects of secondhand smoke, companies are cracking down harder on tobacco.

Two of Maryland’s biggest employers — Bethesda defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. and Greater Baltimore Medical Center — are going beyond a ban on indoor smoking. Earlier this year, the Baltimore hospital banned smoking by employees anywhere on company property, including parking lots. Lockheed, which has about 135,000 employees, including about 2,700 in Montgomery County, plans a similar ban beginning Jan. 1.

Bethesda hotelier Marriott International now stipulates that guests cannot smoke in any of its roughly 400,000 rooms in the United States and Canada. Centrum Management LLC of Sterling, Va., which manages apartment complexes in Gaithersburg, Rockville and other Maryland cities, bans residents from smoking in their rental units.

Nationwide, some companies such as Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. of Marysville, Ohio, which has offices in Maryland, have gone even further, pledging not to hire smokers. Employee benefits company Weyco of Okemos, Mich., actually fired existing employees who smoke, according to published reports. But Weyco officials said in a statement that those employees ‘‘opted out of the [company’s tobacco-free] program and decided to seek employment elsewhere.”

The tougher measures are fueled by reports such as one from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that tobacco users cost a company an average of $3,391 annually in lost productivity and medical costs. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, the agency adds.

The U.S. surgeon general also recently released a report calling for stronger corporate smoking bans to guard against secondhand smoke. In Maryland, the economic costs of exposure to secondhand smoke — which include doctor and hospital visits and the value of premature deaths — reached $597.6 million in 2005, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The wider bans are ‘‘the wave of the future,” said Kari Appler, executive director of the Smoke Free Maryland Coalition of Baltimore. But she had not heard about any companies in Maryland going so far as to not hire smokers.

‘‘For many employers, this makes sense,” Appler said. ‘‘They are concerned about the message they send to employees, customers and the general public.”

Members of the coalition, which formed in 1993, include the Maryland State Medical Society — or MedChi — American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Lung Association.

The broader corporate smoking bans are misguided and discriminatory, said Michael J. McFadden, mid-Atlantic regional director of the Smoker’s Club, a group that works for smokers’ rights.

He pointed out that companies could conceivably save money by targeting nonsmokers who theoretically cost more in pension expenses because they tend to live longer.

‘‘What if I’m running a company and want to save on pension plan expenses, so I fire people who are nonsmokers? If someone tried to do that, it would create an uproar,” said McFadden, a Philadelphia resident and author of the book, ‘‘Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains.”

Part of overall package

For Lockheed, the more comprehensive smoking ban is part of an overall package of recent improvements to the company’s health and wellness policies, said spokesman Thomas Greer. Those include greater awareness campaigns about the need for cholesterol and blood pressure checks, free onsite flu vaccinations, re-evaluating vending machine food and appointing a corporate medical director to oversee the efforts, he said.

Protecting employees’ health and helping contain medical costs are the primary drivers behind the wider smoking ban, Greer said. The company’s spends about $800 million annually on medical expenses, a total that could reach $1.5 billion by 2010 and $3 billion by 2017 at the current rate, he said.

‘‘We estimate that about $1,000 of every employee’s health premium each year goes to pay for the negative consequences of smoking,” Greer said. Some 22 percent of employees smoke, based on federal data, he said.

Like many companies with tougher policies, Lockheed is offering employees and their families free access to smoking cessation programs. The 292-bed Greater Baltimore Medical Center, which began its campus-wide smoking ban in January, provides both free cessation classes and nicotine replacement gum to employees. The hospital, with more than 3,500 full-time employees, is Baltimore County’s largest private employer, according to its Web site.

The hospital does allow smoking in personal vehicles on its property. Some other hospitals, including Frederick Memorial Hospital, ban smoking indoors, but allow it in designated outdoor areas.

Marriott, which this month launched its more comprehensive ban on smoking in hotel rooms, is reviewing its entire smoking policy, a spokesman said.

Lockheed has not taken steps implemented by other businesses, such as not hiring smokers or charging smokers more for medical insurance premiums, Greer said.

‘‘We have heard back from some employees, and it’s been more positive than negative,” he said of the ban.

State ban up in smoke

Across Maryland, smoking in state buildings is prohibited. And for the past four years, the Maryland legislature has debated a ban on smoking in all restaurants and bars, which is the law in the District and 13 states, including Delaware.

A statewide ban has failed due to a ‘‘lack of political will,” Appler said.

The Restaurant Association of Maryland, which contends that such a ban would drive away customers, has been a vocal opponent. But in Montgomery, which has had a smoking ban in bars and restaurants since 2003, sales tax receipts at restaurants rose 19 percent to $68.8 million from 2003 to 2005, according to a news release from County Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg and former councilman Isiah Leggett.

Since the last legislative session ended in April, Howard County has joined Montgomery, Prince George’s and Talbot counties in adopting such a ban. Baltimore city officials plan to discuss the issue at a hearing next month.

‘‘I’m optimistic about passing a statewide ban next year,” Appler said. ‘‘The momentum is building.”

Maryland is not the only state where proposed bans have not succeeded, McFadden said. Virginia and Tennessee lawmakers also defeated statewide bans earlier this year. And some cities have revoked bans on hiring smokers after officials found problems with finding enough workers and did not see reduced medical costs, he said.

‘‘The claim that universal smoking bans are inevitable is as big a lie as the claim that the smallest trace of secondary smoke is deadly,” McFadden said.

The surgeon general reported that ventilation systems do not work in completely removing the toxins in secondhand smoke. But McFadden disputed that, saying restaurants and other businesses with ‘‘decent” ventilation systems should have no problems keeping secondhand smoke away from nonsmokers.

‘‘Smoking decisions in individual businesses should be based on the needs and desires of their customers and workers,” McFadden said.

As for an employer’s right to hire only nonsmokers, whether a potential employee smokes should be just one of many factors considered, he said.

‘‘Smoking should never be used as a litmus test for something as vital to fundamental rights as being considered for a job,” McFadden said.