Copyright 2005 Times Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
By JONATHAN ABEL
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
However, exceptions for veterans workers and other limitations in law and agency rules often thwart efforts to employ nonsmokers only.
Spring Hill Fire Rescue Chief J.J. Morrison runs into burning buildings, rushes to fires at 3 a.m. and touches bleeding patients with his own hands, but smoking is “the dumbest thing I do,” he says.
New hires in the fire district must sign an affidavit saying they have been tobacco-free for one year before employment, and the same rule applies to sheriff’s deputies hired after Jan. 1, 2004. But that doesn’t stop veteran emergency responders such as Morrison from taking a drag.
“I can’t justify it,” Morrison said.
He can’t quit either.
His story is common among police officers and firefighters whose work weighs them down with stress. Cigarettes used to be part of the uniform. But in Hernando County and throughout the state, fire and police departments are pushing to hire nonsmokers in an effort to keep down future medical expenses.
The effort, however, is uneven and sometimes as hollow as a smoke ring.
Take the state law for firefighter qualifications. An applicant must “be a nonuser of tobacco or tobacco products for at least 1 year immediately preceding application, as evidenced by the sworn affidavit of the applicant,” the statutes read.
Dave Casey, chief of fire standards and training for the state fire marshal, which enforces the law, points out that the wording does not apply to veterans of the fire department or even to neophytes once they’ve been hired. It only applies to applicants.
“Once they’re hired they can put in a mouthful of chew, and light up a cigar,” he said. “Of course that’s a problem.”
Casey worried that tobacco use could call into question a presumptive clause in Florida’s Heart and Lung Law, which states that police and firefighters who develop tuberculosis, heart disease or hypertension can treat those as work-related injuries, unless there is there is specific evidence otherwise.
“With the tobacco specter, you don’t want anything to call (that presumption) into question,” said Casey, who added that there has been serious talk about tightening the laws so firefighters can’t use tobacco even after they’ve been hired.
The law also extends to law enforcement and correctional officers. Applicants for a job as a deputy at the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office face an even more restrictive tobacco screening.
Would-be deputies must be tobacco-free for a year before being hired. But they must also sign an affidavit promising not to use tobacco, on or off duty, for as long as they work at the Sheriff’s Office.
The policy applies only to deputies hired on or after Jan. 1, 2004, and older deputies are permitted to smoke or chew tobacco as long as they don’t do it “while in direct contact with the public or at any time that would interfere with the proper and courteous discharge of their official duties.”
No deputies have been disciplined for violating these rules, said Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Deputy Donna L. Black, who has never smoked. And she said there are not many in the force who do smoke: “The sheriff doesn’t smoke, the chief doesn’t, the attorney doesn’t, the majors don’t, and the captains don’t,” Black said.
A casual glance outside the county courthouse, however, or a trip around town reveals that the smoking flame has not been completely extinguished among the rank and file of the Sheriff’s Office.
And there are plenty of stores willing to sell tobacco to them.
Brooksville’s Tobacco Depot, at Cortez Boulevard and S Broad Street, sports a veritable supermarket of tobacco products, including a humidity-controlled room for cigars. The store sells to many law enforcement officers and firefighters, according to its manager, who wouldn’t give her name.
The manager said her store offers a 15 percent discount to law enforcement officers and firefighters.
But applicants for jobs at the Sheriff’s Office have asked her for such nontobacco fixes as herbal snuff to help them as they go through the application process.
Across the street at the BP gas station, store manager Sam Vaddi said lots of deputies come in to buy cigarettes when they’re off duty.
“On duty, they just come in and use the bathroom and get a drink,” Vaddi said.
His store doesn’t offer discounts for public safety workers, and he doesn’t really like having them around because the police presence scares off business.
Not every arm of public safety has a problem with smokers.
Tobacco is prohibited inside the Hernando County Jail, operated by Corrections Corporation of America, but clumps of corrections officers congregate in the parking lot to smoke.
And the Brooksville Police Department abandoned its hiring preference for nonsmokers, City Manager Richard Anderson said.
“The department heads, including the Police Department, years ago, had a policy or a guideline of not hiring people who were smokers or smokers who hadn’t agreed to quit smoking. But that’s not been in place or imposed for more than five years,” said Anderson, who quit smoking six or seven years ago. “At this point, we don’t think it’s a significant problem.”
Barbara Dupre, director of the county’s Human Resources Department, agreed. She said that the smoking habits of county employees had not been an issue.
“I think there are certainly some benefits to hiring nonsmokers, but in terms of actually bringing it up (to the County Commission), I’m not planning to at this point.”