Smoking or My Job? US Media Coverage of Nonsmoker-Only Hiring Policies.

Patricia A Mcdaniel,Naphtali Offen,Ruth E Malone,Brie Cadman,Rebecca Krukowski

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144281

Patricia A Mcdaniel, Naphtali Offen + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144281

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Dec 3, 2015
Citations: 25	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of California, San Francisco

Abstract

ObjectivesMedia advocacy plays a critical role in tobacco control, shaping the content of news in ways that generate public support for tobacco control. We examined US media coverage of nonsmoker-only hiring policies, which have little US public support, exploring the extent to which tobacco control advocates and experts have engaged the media on this controversial issue.MethodsWe searched online media databases (Lexis Nexis, Access World News, and Proquest) for articles published from 1995–2013, coding retrieved items through a collaborative, iterative process. We analyzed the volume, type, provenance, prominence, content and slant of coverage.ResultsWe found 1,159 media items on nonsmoker-only hiring policies, most published in local newspapers in regions where such policies were enacted. The most common reason given for implementing such policies was to reduce healthcare costs. Most news items offered reasons both to support and oppose such policies; thus, the slant of the majority of news items was neutral or mixed. Tobacco control advocates or experts were infrequently cited or quoted in news items, and rarely authored opinion pieces. Those who expressed opinions were more likely to support than oppose nonsmoker-only hiring policies, for economic and health reasons. Ethical concerns about the policies were seldom raised.ConclusionsAs presented in the media, nonsmoker-only hiring policies were primarily framed in terms of business cost savings and had little connection to health initiatives. Tobacco control advocates were rarely quoted and their positions were not consistent. Given their intrusiveness and the lack of strong evidence that such business policies actually do improve worker health, tobacco control advocates may feel that the status quo is preferable to engaging on a policy that the majority of Americans dislike.

Highlights

Tobacco control is highly newsworthy in the US [1], and the media play key roles in advancing the tobacco control agenda [2, 3]
We found 1,159 media items on nonsmoker-only hiring policies, most published in local newspapers in regions where such policies were enacted
As presented in the media, nonsmoker-only hiring policies were primarily framed in terms of business cost savings and had little connection to health initiatives

Summary

Introduction

Tobacco control is highly newsworthy in the US [1], and the media play key roles in advancing the tobacco control agenda [2, 3]. Tobacco control advocates have used a variety of media advocacy techniques to promote media coverage that will generate public support for tobacco control [11,12,13]. While many workplace-related tobacco control policies, such as smokefree environments [14], have strong public support in the US, others are more controversial. Formal nonsmoker-only hiring policies first appeared in the US in the 1980s. The tobacco industry and its paid ally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), aggressively promoted so-called “smokers’ rights”/smoker protection laws in state legislatures [18, 19]. In the remaining 21 states, employers may choose not to hire people based on their smoking status. Eighty-six percent of Americans disapprove of such decisions, a proportion that has not changed over the last decade [22]

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