Smokers Need Not Apply? Lesson Plan

9-12 social studies/health/global issues/economics 

Smokers Need Not Apply? (video from Fox News)

Overview: A series of lesson plans exploring the topic: should employers be able to refuse employment to those who smoke?

The Interviews–Lesson Plan 1

Objective:  Students will conduct interviews, gather and analyze results.  Interviews will be on the issue discussed in the video clip (should employers be able to refuse employment to those who smoke?). Students will share results via a presentation. 

Commercial–Lesson Plan 2

Objective:  Students will complete a television commercial advertising their opinion on the issue

The Economics of Smoking–Lesson Plan 3

Objective:  Students will analyze smoking from an economic perspective.

Additional Resources:

Employer Initiatives to Stop Smoking, from the Journal of Employee Assistance, May 2006.

Can Employer Refuse to Hire Smokers?, from HR Recruiting Alert, 21 August 2009.

Does Refusing to Hire Smokers Amount to ‘Discrimination’?, in Emergency Physicians Monthly, 11 February 2010.

Refusal to Hire Smokers Criticized, in Seattle Times, 23 January 2009.

Companies Increasingly Saying Smokers Need Not Apply, in Seattle Times, 10 October 2004.

Resources for Global Issues in Context Subscribers:

Big Tobacco’s New Targets, in Time. 27 July 2009.

Gruesome Photos on Cigarette Packages Reduce Tobacco Use, in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 1 August 2009.

Public Smoking Ban, in The Times (London, England), 2 December 2003.