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• Whose life is it anyway? Workers pay price for unhealthy ways 

As a chemist at 3M, she's had plenty of chances to join health and fitness programs on the job. But like many Minnesotans, she's simply chosen not to.

Now, that choice is starting to get costly.

At a growing number of workplaces, employees are paying a price for refusing to take part in wellness programs. Some face hundreds of dollars a year in higher costs for health insurance. Some are missing out on cash and gifts used to reward their colleagues -- not for their work, but for the way they eat, exercise and conduct their lives. . . .

"I think everyone is collectively beginning to understand that the 400-pound gorilla in the room is health and wellness," said Dr. Ted Loftness, a vice president at Medica Health Plans. "We can't dance around it anymore. We have to do something about it."

Experts say that upwards of 40 percent of U.S. medical costs are linked to obesity, smoking and other lifestyle factors -- a statistic not lost on the nation's employers. As a result, more than half of large corporations now use incentives to get employees to shape up, a 2008 survey found.

But in the process, employers are pushing the boundary between work life and private life.

At 3M, General Mills and many other Twin Cities worksites, employees can earn up to $100 in cash or shave hundreds of dollars off their health insurance if they (and sometimes their spouses) take a "health risk assessment" -- a detailed survey of their personal health habits.

Some companies are tying payments to medical test results.

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• CIG-RULE VIOLATORS $LAMMED 

Buildings Department inspectors blitzed construction firms with nearly 250 summonses in just three months for violations of a tough smoking law enacted after the deadly fire at the Deutsche Bank building, The Post has learned.

Investigators determined that the blaze, which took the lives of two firefighters, was started on Aug. 18, 2007, by a cigarette discarded as the toxic tower was being dismantled.

"Smoking on any construction site puts people's lives in danger, and the construction industry must step up to the plate," Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said.

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Local woman makes case for smoke-free Wyoming 

Katherine Hooper of Powell has never smoked a cigarette in her life -- yet in early 1990, she was diagnosed with cancer of the voice box, a "smoker's cancer."

She believes she got this type of cancer from spending years working with smokers -- and inhaling the resulting secondhand smoke. Her doctors agree that secondhand smoke is the most likely cause.

Hooper is now part of a statewide coalition, Smokefree Wyoming, dedicated to lobbying state legislators about the need to ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants.

"(Secondhand smoke is) the only way I could have gotten (this type of cancer)," she said. "They say I'm a statistic. My doctor said no one else that he knows of, who has never smoked, has this kind of cancer." . . .

Hooper, a small, spunky woman, spent close to 20 years working in an oil field office. She said sometimes "you had to fight your way through the smoke. I complained to my boss about the smoke in (the office), so he put a fan it to blow it out of the office (and into the shop)."

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• Shanghai bids to curtail smoking habit 

In a bid to offer a smoke-free World Expo in 2010, Shanghai is likely to extend its no smoking ban from public venues to all indoor workplaces, the Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

New legislation will be discussed by the standing committee of the Shanghai People's Congress. If passed, it will replace the current regulation that only relates to no smoking in public places.

"All places with ceilings and at least three walls will be defined as indoor areas where smoking will be strictly prohibited," Li Mingzhu, director of the tobacco control office under the municipal health bureau, was quoted as saying.

"No designated smoking areas will be allowed in the smoke-free zones," she said.

"This is to minimize the impact of second-hand smoking."

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Cigarette Smoking Areas to Be Prepared 

TEMPO Interactive, Semarang:The implementation of the 2010 Provincial Regulation regarding Cigarette Smoking in Semarang will be followed by the construction of smoking areas in some government offices.

"So that non-smokers are not disturbed by smokers," said Central Java Health Services head, Hartanto, yesterday (30/11).

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Last gasp for workplace smoking 

A cigarette break in the office smoking room will soon be a thing of the past, if it isn't already.

In a move hailed by health groups as long overdue, the provincial government announced Tuesday a workplace smoking ban will take effect May 31, 2009.

The amendments to Occupational Health and Safety regulations will butt out the smoking areas still allowed in some places of employment.

The ban will extend to lighting up in all "enclosed places," including buildings, vehicles and other enclosed structures that are part of the work site.

"This is a wonderful step that all workers will be protected equally," said Lynn Greaves of the Saskatchewan Coalition for Tobacco Reduction, who hailed the announcement as a step forward in protecting people from tobacco-related diseases.

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BlueCross bans smoking at its Tenn. offices 

On the eve of today's Great American Smokeout, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee said all of its offices and other properties statewide would go tobacco-free.

The state's largest health insurer would become the latest medical industry employer with a policy that several Nashville-area hospitals credit with helping more employees quit smoking.

Starting Jan. 1, use of tobacco products by employees and tenants would be barred within or on the grounds of BlueCross properties in Chattanooga, Jackson, Johnson City, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, the health insurer said.

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HYMAN: Are there legal risks with smoking bans? 

I had the privilege of speaking last week at the COSE 2008 Small Business Conference. I received a question on the legality of workplace policies that prohibit employees from smoking at all - during the work day, off work, anywhere, any time. As The Cincinnati Enquirer reports, there is a definite trend of businesses refusing to employ smokers. Companies view these policies are part of wellness programs that are used to control health insurance costs. Often, the programs not only prohibit smoking, but offer programs to smokers to aid in their efforts to quit: . . .

Nationally, the Scotts Miracle-Gro lawn-care company and the Cleveland Clinic have started similar programs. Locally, the Hamilton County Public Health agency also doesn't hire smokers.

29 states and the District of Columbia have so-called "smoker protection" laws - laws that elevate smokers to a protected class, making it illegal to discriminate against an employee because he or she smokes. Ohio is not such a state. Thus, in Ohio, there is nothing per se illegal about making employment decisions based on one's status as a smoker.

As far as I know, this type of smoking ban has never been tested in an Ohio court. I have three thoughts, though, of possible laws that could be implicated by a blanket smoking prohibition:

* The ADA: The ADA and its Ohio counterpart protect "addiction" as a disability. . . .

I think there should be little risk in enacting a workplace smoke-out, but these legal theories are untested. For small and mid-sized businesses then, the question becomes if you want to be the business that get such a policy challenged.

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Australian Forklift Training discuss adoption of no smoking policy on and around forklifts 

Australian Forklift Training recommend that all companies adopt a strict no smoking policy on and around all of their forklifts.

The batteries in electric machines produce explosive gases that can easily be ignited by a cigarette. LPG forklifts are only safe from explosions while the fuel system is in perfect working order. As soon as a small leak occurs, a lit cigarette can cause a large explosion.

The OHS Regulation (Division 7, Fire and explosion) gives employers the following information.

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Wis.LIRC WC Decision: Avina, Michael - May 3, 2007 - ND § 3.42 - Causation in Occupational Disease Case - applicant's various neurological, gastric, urinary, pain, and anxiety complaints not shown related to applicant's second-hand smoke exposure 

In September 2004, the applicant filed a hearing application alleging permanent total disability from exposure to secondhand smoke at work from October 1, 1991 through December 13, 1993, causing severe chronic central nervous system failure and other multi-system failure. An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Worker's Compensation Division of the Department of Workforce Development heard the matter on April 12 and May 25, 2006. . . .

The critical issue in this case is not simply whether workers may suffer injury from exposure to second hand smoke. Even the employer's expert, Dr. Levy, acknowledges that studies relate second hand exposure to cancer, respiratory infection, heart disease, stroke, and possibly asthma. However, the record does not support finding that the applicant has suffered an injury from secondhand tobacco smoke in this case.

The applicant does not have cancer. He has not had a stroke, and it is not clear that he has actual heart disease -- at least, his right bundle branch blockage has not been shown to be evidence of underlying heart disease -- much less that it is related to the smoking. The evidence on the respiratory problems is sketchy as well. The applicant does have respiratory complaints -- the stuffed nose which he has to blow every 45 minutes -- but the medical opinions he offers do not persuade the commission that complaint is due to his exposure to tobacco smoke.

Dr. Heuser never examined the applicant personally, which would have enhanced his credibility in ruling out Dr. Novom's diagnosis of hypochondriasis. Further, Dr. Heuser's opinion is based on the 1400 microgram exposure level which seems to be rather speculatively-derived. Dr. Konetzki's report is incomplete. Dr. Harding and chiropractor Ghojallu really do not explain the medical or scientific basis for why they believe that the applicant's host of complaints are related to second hand smoke exposure. The applicant has not persuasively rebutted Drs. Levy and Novom's statement that no relevant, reliable studies connect secondhand smoke exposure to neurological problems, or central or peripheral nervous system complaints. In sum, the commission cannot conclude that the applicant's various neurological, gastric, urinary and pain complaints -- or Dr. Rosen's diagnosis of anxiety -- can be rationally related to the smoke exposure from 1991 to 1993 on the evidence in this case.

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• Garage much healthier thanks to Nicorette's effort  

NASCAR has 350 quitters. Team members, crew chiefs, NASCAR officials, track workers and business types have all quit smoking within the last three years through a cessation program launched by Nicorette, one of NASCAR's sponsors.

The sport's smoke'em-if-you've-got'em mentality has disappeared in recent years. Drivers puffing on cancer sticks for the cameras are as passé as rules forbidding females in the garage or crew members wearing jeans on pit road.

Once R.J. Tobacco Company left the sport in 2003 so did free cigarettes handed out in media centers and fan infields. In today's NASCAR, you've got crew members slapping on nicotine patches and chewing nicotine-laced gum.

The sport is mimicking a nationwide trend where Americans simply want to live longer and healthier lives. Despite NASCAR's appreciation for its deeply rooted heritage in the tobacco industry, the sport's players are proving old dogs can learn new tricks.

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• Firm sued by ex-employee over asthma linked to smoking coworkers 

The first lawsuit to be filed against an employer whose failure to stop smokers apparently caused a non-smoking employee to contract asthma has been submitted to the Rehovot Magistrate's Court, with the plaintiff demanding NIS 707,500.

Avi Greenberg is a 31-year-old Shoham resident who worked for almost a year in logistics, distribution and service at Negev Ceramics Marketing in Rehovot. He is demanding this sum for permanent disability (of 20 percent); refusal of severance pay; medical devices he needs; a potentially shortened life span; lack of salary; suffering, restrictions and pain; and an objective medical expert's opinion.

He is being represented by lawyer Amos Hausner, the chairman of the National Council for the Prevention of Smoking, who said that if Greenberg wins the case, it will deter many employers from permitting blatant violations of the law preventing smoking at the workplace, other than in designated separate rooms.

Every time Greenberg went to work, he was exposed to "massive amounts of tobacco smoke" from two to eight heavy smokers

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• Employees need bigger carrot for wellness programs  

INDIANAPOLIS – Jason Lucas wanted to snuff his pack-a-day cigarette habit, but not badly enough to pay for the stop-smoking drug Chantix.

Lucas heard good things about Chantix from his aunt. Still, the $150 monthly cost — not covered by insurance — seemed too steep until his employer, Monarch Beverage Co., offered to cover it.

"That was the horse that was walking by, and I jumped on him," the 29-year-old said. "That was just huge, huge for them to pay for it like that."

While workers enroll in benefits plans this fall, meaty incentives like these are growing as employers seek to boost participation in company-sponsored wellness programs.

Benefits experts predict another surge in popularity next year for these programs, even with a possible recession looming. Wellness programs aim to improve employee well-being with physicals, fitness guidance or other incentives to ward off future medical bills.

Companies will continue these wellness investments even in tough economic times

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EU in talks with unions on blanket smoking ban 

The European Union is negotiating with business groups and trade unions over plans to impose a blanket ban on smoking from the factory floor to restaurants and bars, officials said Monday.

The European Commission would like to see a ban on smoking in all workplaces "for both health and safety reasons," EU spokeswoman Chantal Hughes said.

"We have a duty to ensure that all workplaces are safe and secure for workers and at this stage we don't think that is the case," Hughes said.

The consultations are at an early stage and any new EU-wide ban could be years away, she said.

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Over half of Taiwan's workplaces enforce smoking ban: BHP 

More than half of Taiwan's workplaces have enforced a non-smoking policy, in keeping with government regulations that will take effect next year, the results of a recent survey indicated.

Some 55.8 percent of Taiwan's corporations have declared their premises smoke-free, according to a survey released by the Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP) under the Cabinet-level Department of Health.

Another 17.7 percent have designated indoor smoking areas, while 25.5 percent maintain no restrictions on smoking, the survey showed.

The survey also found that 63.6 percent of the respondents were aware of the government's new initiative, with 17 percent of that number knowing the exact implementation date.

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