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Tennessee Hospital Is Hiring; Smokers Need Not Apply  

Smoking is legal -- but a hospital in Tennessee will not hire job applicants if its drug tests detect nicotine.

Wanted: health care workers. Smokers need not apply.

Beginning next month, Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn., will do its darnedest to snuff out nicotine. The hospital will not hire smokers, and it will test all job applicants for nicotine as part of its pre-employment drug screening.

Now chew on this: Any evidence of nicotine use -- including cessation products like nicotine gum or a patch -- will make job applicants ineligible, hospital spokesman Brian Lazenby told FoxNews.com.

Current employees at the hospital will not be affected, but applicants who test positive for tobacco use will not be offered jobs and may be disqualified from reapplying for six months.

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