Businesses mull adding worker smoking bans

FORT COLLINS — Renee Radke, general manager of Bisetti’s Italian Restaurant in Old Town, wants patrons to taste the flavorful food, not the aroma of cigarette smoke from employees.

At Bisetti’s, servers and bartenders can smoke on their free time, but not during their shifts.

“We don’t want them coming in reeking of smoke,” Radke said.

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Bisetti’s has had a no-smoking policy for years, but larger employers recently also have begun to try to stamp out smoking. Fort Collins’ Woodward Inc. (Nasdaq: WWD) and Centura Health, the health care provider that runs Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, both have stepped up to limit tobacco use at the workplace.

The leading preventable cause of death, smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease and diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease caused by smoking.

Woodward, which employs about 1,400 people in Northern Colorado, recently said it would no longer allow smoking or other tobacco use on its campus. The company also requires larger contributions toward health insurance premiums for smokers, a move that has become increasingly common among employers.

Woodward hopes that policy leads to fewer health-insurance claims to control health-care costs over time as well as a healthier workforce.

“In the past, we also encouraged people not to smoke, but we did have smoking areas on our campuses,” said Tracy Gohari, Woodward business communications director. “We’ve done away with that, so there’s nowhere you can smoke on a Woodward campus.”

Centura Health, which banned smoking and other tobacco use at its facilities in 2012, went a step farther and stopped hiring smokers Jan. 1. The new policy is aimed at lowering employee insurance costs and maintaining a healthy workplace and follows similar policies implemented at other health-care providers nationwide.

Centura, which has more than 6,000 affiliated physicians and 17,100 employees in Colorado and Kansas, wanted to set an example by discouraging unhealthy tobacco use, said Dr. Pete Walsh, its chief medical officer. Walsh said Centura managers carefully considered employees’ individual liberties but concluded that the health of the group outweighed those concerns.

“We balanced that against the need to be role models in the community as well as the significant harm that tobacco use causes,” he said. “Research shows that if you can activate someone to change – in this case, stop smoking – there’s a decent chance they will continue to stop smoking.”

Under the new policy, applicants selected for a position after Jan. 1 will be tested for tobacco as part of their post-job offer screening. Applicants who test positive for tobacco use will be eliminated from consideration, but may be eligible to reapply for job opportunities at Centura Health 90 days after their last test result. Centura will not conduct ongoing monitoring of employees to ensure they avoid using tobacco.

The shift to a tobacco-free workplace does not apply to current employees, although they are encouraged to participate in wellness programs to help them quit tobacco.

From a legal perspective, Colorado employers can restrict smoking in certain cases, said Lorrie Ray, director of membership development for Denver-based Mountain States Employers Council. The organization represents about 3,000 businesses throughout the West.

Employers have two main concerns with smokers: They result in higher care costs and can lead to lack of productivity when taking smoke breaks, and lower productivity also causes jealousy among nonsmoking employees who do not take as many breaks.

“It’s a morale issue,” Ray said. “The fewer morale issues you have, the better.”

Employers have a right to restrict smoking on their properties, Ray said. However, Colorado’s Off-Duty Legal Activities law bars employers form firing workers for smoking while off the clock unless employees have stated as a condition of their employment that they do not smoke.

Not hiring smokers has become more common, although it is not the norm, she said.

What if an employee started smoking after being hired when the worker originally told the employer that he or she did not smoke?

“The employer would be somewhat limited in ending the employment of that employee,” she said. “It would be up to the employer to prove that you were indeed a smoker when you had applied for the position.”

Curbs on smoking in the workplace come as the city of Fort Collins is considering a ban on smoking within its downtown bicycle dismount zone, as well as city parks, natural areas and city-approved events and festivals. That includes territory along College Avenue and some surrounding streets.

Surveys conducted by the city indicate that half of Fort Collins businesses support a smoking ban downtown, said Delynn Coldiron, interim neighborhood services manager for the city. Thirty percent of businesses oppose a downtown smoking ban while another 20 percent were unsure.

Fort Collins already has bans on smoking in hotels, within 20 feet of smoke-free areas, bars and restaurants, Transfort facilities and other places.

The city’s proposed ban on downtown smoking would mirror Boulder’s smoking ban on the Pearl Street Mall. The Fort Collins City Council on Feb. 1 will give preliminary consideration to the ordinance banning smoking downtown and in natural areas.

Radke supports the city’s efforts to stop people from smoking downtown.

Bisetti’s owns a bench that sits outside the restaurant where people often light up, although the restaurant will ask people not to smoke there.

Restaurant patrons sometimes complain when they have to walk through smoke wafting near the doorway.

“People who are smoking in the front of businesses are keeping away the nonsmokers,” she said. “For the nonsmokers, it’s deterring them from wanting to just walk down the street and take a nice breath of fresh air.”

Steve Lynn can be reached at 970-232-3147, 303-630-1968 or slynn@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SteveLynnBW.