Content about Ethics

DANVILLE, Pa. — Geisinger Health System may be the largest employer to discriminate against a declining minority — smokers — beginning Feb. 1.

Geisinger last week announced it will no longer hire job applicants who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco.

NEW YORK — Compared with those who continue to smoke, quitters are both happier and more satisfied with their health, both one year and three years afterward, than those who continue to smoke, according to new research published last week in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Smokers hold strong beliefs about how stopping smoking will reduce their quality of life. Positive experiences of smoking cessation, including improved well-being, could be used by clinicians to educate and motivate individuals to stop smoking.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — New legislation proposed in the Senate would strengthen penalties against people who traffic in counterfeit medications.

Introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., S. 1886, the Counterfeit Drug Penalty Enhancement Act of 2011, would harshen laws against producing, buying or selling counterfeit drugs. The bill has received support from the chain retail pharmacy lobby.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Almost one-third of Americans who have not had enough money to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months are smokers, according to the October 2011 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The percentage of smokers is cut in half (14.2%) when it comes to the population that can afford to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months. Of the Americans without a personal doctor, 27.5% smoke.

WASHINGTON — According to the National Retail Federation’s annual Return Fraud Survey, completed by loss-prevention executives at 103 retailers, the retail industry will lose an estimated $3.5 billion to return fraud this holiday season, down from $3.7 billion last year. Annual return fraud will cost retailers an estimated $14.4 billion in 2011, up slightly from about $13.7 billion in 2010.

PHILADELPHIA — Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors cost the retail industry $41.7 billion in the United States in 2011, representing 1.6% in sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released Tuesday by Checkpoint Systems. Of that, $18.4 billion was attributed to employee theft, $14.9 billion to shoplifters, $6.6 billion to internal error and $1.8 billion to suppliers.

The problem with shoplifting these days isn’t Little Johnny pocketing a pack of bubblegum, Joe LaRocca, senior asset protection adviser for the National Retail Federation, recently told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” during a broadcast interview. No, it’s a lot of Little Johnnies who are systematically swiping the entire gum display that’s becoming the problem. 


ARLINGTON, Va. — More than half of retail respondents to a survey conducted by the Retail Industry Leaders Association recently reported an increase in the frequency with which organized rings committed shoplifting, and 41% saw an increase in shoplifting by individuals acting alone. As many as 64% of respondents reported an increase in theft of pharmaceutical products, according to the 2011 Crime Trends and Leading Practices Survey released Thursday by RILA.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri researchers earlier this week revealed evidence that showed those who quit smoking show improvements in their overall personality.

"The data indicate that for some young adults, smoking is impulsive," stated Andrew Littlefield, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science. "That means that 18 year olds are acting without a lot of forethought, and favor immediate rewards over long-term, negative consequences."

ATLANTA — Not only are there fewer smokers across the country, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Tuesday, but the men and women that are still smoking also are smoking less.

The report, which covered data from 2005 to 2010, showed an estimated 19.3% of American adults, ages 18 years and older, continue to smoke, a decline from 20.9% in 2005.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark has announced the results of its previously announced solicitation of consents from the registered holders as of 5 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 8 of its 6.125% senior notes due Aug. 15, 2016, to terminate the replacement capital covenant — which was entered into on May 25, 2007 — for the benefit of the holders of the notes in connection with the issuance of its 6.302% enhanced capital advantaged preferred securities due 2062.