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I understand where they're coming from, but why stop at smokers?

How about checking out where you have lunch and make sure you're choosing healthy meals instead of high calorie, high cholesterol choices. If you brown bag it, how about lunch bag inspections each day!

Forget about alcohol while at lunch (is that even done anymore), don't indulge in the evening or on weekends!

That should cover all the bases.

It employers place too many restrictions on their employees they will be unable to hire and retain good employees.

Every time the government steps in with good intentions to protect workers it just seems to end up in a mess with people stretching the law beyond it's intent and suing employers. That makes it more expensive to do business and harms our economy, which eventually harms us.

I definitely don't like all of the policies of the company I work for, but I recognize that I can always look for another job if I feel they are too restrictive.

Bad company policies can put some people with limited employment options in a bad situation, but so can bad government regulations. If you let the government address this issue, the bill that finally gets passed after all the special interest groups pull the politicians in different directions and they reach a compromise won't be exactly what you were hoping for. In the end it will mostly be a windfall for trial lawyers.

However, if you want to really get your blood boiling about invasion of privacy, imagine if they take this just a little step farther.

Just imagine showing up for processing in at your new job and being told that you needed to set up an appointment to have blood tests for both you and your wife to test for nicotine? That is if they're going to be covered on your family medical plan.

That didn't bother you? How about if they want to test your teenage kids for nicotine, alcohol, and drugs while they're at it?

I'm not saying there won't be a company that tries to do that. There probably will be. I just know I wouldn't want to work there even if they had to stop this policy due to government intervention. Bad employers to work for still find a way to be bad employers despite government oversight.

It usually seems like the bad employers are good at creating rules that prevent them from being sued, while it's the better employers that act in good faith but accidentally do something that can be inferred as violating the law that end up in court dealing with a disgruntled employee who's retirement plan is to sue someone for lots of money.