Smoking ban for Miss. employees

Smoking on the job will soon be out of line for Ocean Springs city employees.

"We're adopting a tobacco free workplace," said Mayor, Connie Moran.

Employees also can't smoke at any city building or inside any city vehicle.

Firefighter, Brian Dawkins doesn't smoke, but many of his co-workers do. "Some of them are upset because we work on a 24 hour basis," he said. "For somebody that's used to having a tobacco habit, to not have it for a 24 hour period, it's kind of a big step to take all at once."

But Mayor Moran says there is an upside. She says the smoking ban will keep the city's rising health care premiums down by about 6 percent.

"So that was a savings for the city, but it allowed us to give a nice raise to our employees and then give them the benefit of this new health opportunity," Moran said.

This is good news for non-smokers, like Dawkins. "To make money for doing something I already do, it's always a plus," he said.

Now, the mayor can only hope all the smokers who kick the habit are just as satisfied with a raise.

"Let's just hope they don't buy cigarette's with it," she said.

The city is also offering a free three month program to help its smoking employees quit. The mayor says the program includes doctor's visits, patches and its also free for spouses.

The smoking ban starts October 1, 2009.