First, did anyone else catch the WSJ on CNBC about smoking, obesity and employer 'rights' to dictate off-the-job legal activities?

I saw it with people who did not realize, until they saw this discussion, just how bad the Big Brother thing is becoming. They were shocked. OTH they are now forewarned and will pay more attention to legalized discrimination as they can see where that slippery slope might be leading.

BTW in looking for a link to the show mentioned above I tripped over this...

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051104/...11040323/1004/news03

and - ROFL - only at a place like Weyco would it occur to anyone to defend sexual harassment charges by claiming they are tobacco motivated!

Read it and weep? laugh? take your pick!

I saw the WSJ story and was pleased that smoking was only part of the story. Employee coercion is striking a chord and heightening public awareness that "health" may be getting a bit big for its britches. I note that the odious Weyco founder, Howard Weyers, did not appear, sending instead a photogenic company flack. On the 60 Minutes segment Weyers was truly a scary individual, fanaticism personified. I guess the cause realized he is not a good spokesman. I'm sorry that he probably won't be the face of company-enforced good health any more.

I thought I saw somewhere this turkey admitted he just doesn't like people who smoke.

That old fart Weyers, by living healthy, probably outlived his wife and has no one to share his sex drive with.

Conclusion: Nonsmokers commit sexual harassment more often than smokers.

Weyers has changed his tune on this issue so much, he was last seen spinning out of control near Uranus.

Actually, he's got me spinning. Every time I see him open his mouth on this subject, it's a different story. He must be coming down with a case of Alzheimer's.

First he was spouting that smokers were costing him money on the bottomline by increased health insurance premiums for his workers, lower productivity, and more sick time off work. Then he cared for his employees more than the money and that's why he was forcing them to quit. Now on 60 minutes, he admitted that he had no idea if the smokers cost him any extra money at all. Apparently he forgot that he never collected the metrics.

Sorry Frank- a long post/quote from grants, but it directly affects me-personally. and I am looking at forward consequences to me and my job and my family. Have contacted the union president regarding what this means to state workers who smoke.....and benefits and the direct mention of the Employee Trust Fund. If Weyco can .... can the State of WI with it's employees? There was also another grant for UW Madison for study on Madison City second hand smoke and city smoking ban. http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/resources/grant.jsp?id=55500&iaid=143


http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/resources/grant.jsp?id=042084&iaid=143

"Active Grants
Tobacco Use & Exposure

Project:
Partners with Tobacco Use Research Centers: Advancing Transdisciplinary Science and Policy Studies -- Policy

Grant Detail:
$1,115,674, (awarded on Mar 19, 2001, starting Apr 1, 2001 ending Feb 28, 2006) ID# 042084

Grantee:
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Suite 200
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, WI 53711-2027
(608) 265-4601


Summary:
The Foundation's program, Partners with Tobacco Use Research Centers: Advancing Transdisciplinary Science and Policy Studies, was designed to apply and integrate advances in molecular biology, neuroscience, genetics, and behavioral science to the challenge of tobacco control, focusing on the significant knowledge gaps that stand in the way of developing more effective strategies for reducing tobacco use in the United Sates. RWJF will fund dissemination and policy research and analysis, and support efforts to communicate scientific breakthroughs in language policy makers, the public, and media can understand. This policy research project is an extension of the work underway at the University of Wisconsin's NIH-funded Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center's (TTURC) grant, which focuses on increasing rates of successful and sustained smoking cessation through improved understanding and treatment of relapse to tobacco use. The purpose of this project is to examine the decision to purchase health insurance coverage for tobacco dependence treatment (TDT) for state employees. There are two specific aims of this project. The first is to identify the utilization, per member per month cost, and member awareness of a new insurance benefit for TDT for state employees, and will involve a collaborative partnership with the State of Wisconsin's Department of Employee Trust Funds. Specifically, data on utilization of this health care benefit will be collected from participating health plans for the first three years of the newly added TDT benefit. The second aim is to assess both the prevalence of insurance coverage for TDT to state employees nationwide, as well as the factors that influence the decision to provide a TDT benefit to state employees. Specifically, a telephone survey will be conducted with one decision maker and one staff person to the purchasing board or committee for each of the 50 state's employee trust fund bureaucracies. The focus of these interviews will be on assessing economic, institutional, and informational factors that influence health care purchasing processes.

Contact Information:
Michael C. Fiore M.D., M.P.H. (Project Director)
mcf@ctri.medicine.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8673"

and so it goes here in MadCity (that used to be a fun nickname here...)

quote:

Sorry Frank- a long post/quote from grants, but it directly affects me...

LOL. What are you sorry about? Please, don't get nervous about posting here, oldstudent. You're doing well. Let your voice be heard.

I simply trimmed out the quoted text from one of your posts on another thread because it repeated Bruce's post immediately preceding yours in its entirety. That wasn't necessary in that situation, because then we all see his entire post twice, then your words in reply.

Normally when folks want to speak to certain points in one or more previous posts on a thread, all they do is paraphrase specific sentences like I just did from your post. Even that was unnecessary here though, because again, your post is immediately before and there is a logical progression reading from one to the next.