According to the Anchorage Daily News, Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state's largest private employer, has announced that it and its affiliates will no longer consider hiring job seekers who test positive for a certain chemical remnant of nicotine.
Current employees are exempt from the new policy, but starting Nov. 17, a test for evidence of nicotine use will be added to the standard, pre-employment drug screening protocol.
Tammy Green, director of health management services for Providence Health and Services Alaska, told the Daily News, "We believe that by doing this move, to where we are no longer going to hire tobacco users, that we are sending a very clear message into the community that we are not only the leaders in health care, but we're really the leaders in health."
Providence isn't the first company to say it won't hire nicotine users in Alaska, but it is the largest so far.