What special privileges? Smokers already pay exorbitant taxes and die early which menas they are not a net drain on the treasury but a net gain. In other words they are saving you MONEY. From a strcitly financial point of view, you should encourage smoking. Stupid, huh? Just as stupid as having the government tell you how to live your life.
By the way you never answered the above so I'll pose one more. Fat kills more Americans than smoking. Is being seen in Dunkin Donuts with a caffeine laced drink and a high test sugar donut cause for termination?
The special priviledge of full, on the job, job related caused injury, which is far better than anyone gets if they have a heart attack on or off the job. If the cop is in the middle of a shootout and has a heart attack, then I have no problem with calling the condition job related whether or not he smokes.
The way this special priviledge is set is that if he keels over in the donut shop while on duty, or shoveling snow in his driveway at home on his day off, he still gets all job related benefits that he would get if had the heart attack in the middle of a shootout.
And that ain't right, especially if his condition is caused by his own behavior.
You got THAT right! Even our Surgeon General put out a report that obesity has over taken smoking for disease AND health care:
Health & Science: Surgeon general warns obesity may overtake tobacco as leading preventable killer
and