The Pima Board of Supervisors voted down a move to ban hiring smokers.
The ban proposal was an attempt to save money on health care costs, however, the board agreed to charge a 30 percent insurance premium surcharge to employees who smoke or use a tobacco product, but if the employee takes a smoking cessation, he wouldn’t have to pay anything
Tucson Weekly reports the self-insured county estimates 32 percent of its more than 2,000 workers are tobacco users, and banning smoking would save more than $1 million in health care costs.
