San Mateo, CA Considers Smoking Ban for Officers

The idea of rejecting smokers as job applicants to police departments is gaining momentum across California. In December Riverside County approved a plan to disallow new recruits who smoked, and now San Mateo County is also considering the idea.The purpose, says San Mateo Sheriff Don Horsley, is to save the county millions of dollars a year in workers' compensation costs.Labor Code section 3212.1 makes it a presumption that a law enforcement officer was injured AOE/COE if a cancer manifests itself during employment or if it can be demonstrated that there was an exposure to carcinogens during e...