First it was the airlines, then office buildings, now we have smoking being banned in the workplace, specifically smokers being banned. How would you like to be denied a job just because you are a smoker?

New rules are coming in to play that state that job applicants must submit to urine tests for nicotine, and if new employees are caught smoking they risk being fired. But the truth is that the current policy of banning smoking in the workplace is not powerful enough to make workers quit smoking.

The new rule is controversial, and groups have protested that this policy is intrusive and that smoking is legal. Despite the protests, there has been a recent surge in companies adopting the new no-smoker rules and it is becoming mainstream.

Major hospitals in some states, such as Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, stopped hiring smokers in 2010. One in five Americans smoke, and the healthcare cost of workers who smoke is around $3,391 a year, not to mention the cost of lost productivity. One chief executive of a hospital in Missouri states that he felt it was unfair to employees who kept up a healthy lifestyle to be picking up the slack.

One group that is against the smoking ban policy is the National Workrights Institute who state that everything will go downhill from this: next thing you know employers will crack down on drinking alcohol, eating fast food ...

For the most part, the new rules seem to be in place for new employees, but a few companies are mandating that existing employees must quit smoking or risk losing their jobs.

The American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking non-profit, believes that the best thing to do is help employees quit smoking, not terminate them.

Do you hire smokers? Do you believe smokers should be terminated? Do share your thoughts with us.