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Dogs To Sniff Out Smokers
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has turned to "tobacco detection canine" teams to sniff out workers sneaking away for a smoke. Careless smoking by workers inside the former Deutsche Bank building is blamed for the Aug. 18, 2007, fire that killed two firefighters. "This is just one part of the project team's multifaceted approach to ensuring that all site regulations are strictly followed and enforced," said LMDC spokesman Mike Murphy.
...but do they sniff out cannabis?
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
since when do we need dogs to do this? smokers smell like, well, smoke, I've yet to meet a smoker who was able to surprise me with that fact, I could tell just from the smell of their clothes, their hair, everything around them.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
"Really Lassie? Bobby was smoking by the water cooler? And he put out his cigarette the wrong way?"
My company offers a small "discount" on the health plan for non-smokers (yes, it's really a tax for smokers).
I thought this story would be about a company using dogs to sniff out people who said they are non-smokers but still smoke.
Do we really need to waste time making a new law or policy every time someone gets hurt? I'm keeping my eyes peeled for toothpaste and mouthwash detection rats sentries staring me down in the airport security line. Why not thrown in a obese person detecting civic patrol eagle that takes fast food bags away as well, What would happen if I smoked a cigarette and came into the building to have a meeting. Would I get flattened by lassie?
Crap like this is just one more reason for people to get the hell out of that totalitarian state while they still can. Join the freedom-fighters in New Hampshire!
Part of the Second American Revolution!
Taking a bite outta crime!!
Maybe because dogs can also be trained to detect cancer earlier by the smell. Kill 2 birds with one stone: "The dog says you're still smoking, and btw, you probably have cancer. You might want to get that checked."
I smoke on the way into work, at lunch, and during an afternoon walk.
What happens if you get sniffed out after smoking off company property and just reek on Deutsche Bank property?
To make sure they're not smokers themselves? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyWAFWOQbWw And if they are, couldn't you buy them of with a pack a week not to rat you out?
This will no doubt lead to the use of dogs to determine whether people are smokers when they establish a health insurance policy.
This is how I trained the dogs to do this important work.
Step 1: Get dogs addicted to cigarettes
Step 2: Withhold cigarettes
Step 3: Dog goes apeshit when it detects cigarettes
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Maybe if they had ashtrays, there wouldn't have been a fire.
Is there not a designated smoking area for these people? If so, how does the dog tell the difference between a worker who smoked in the designated area verses someone who snuck one someplace inappropriate?
Culture is more than commerce
The summary says the smoking was done inside an employers building. If you consider an employer trying to make a building safer for the other occupants oppressive, then you may have difficulties finding an employer who isn't such a tyrrant.
No problem - just have your "service dog" that accompanies you be a bitch in heat :-) Heck, just petting a dog in heat for a minute of two, you'll be good for an hour.
Well, putting it out in a trash can indoors is definitely the wrong way...
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
I'd like to acquaint you with my favorite brand of ground hot red pepper!
However they would get hit with a discrimination suit if they advertised smoking as the reason for the terminations. Remember, its a legal act.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Smokers are not a protected class; everyone is free to discriminate against them.
Wearing orange spiked hair is also legal, and you can easily get fired from many jobs for that.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
I hope this theory doesn't fly up for coke sniffing dogs who can't sniff their own butts anymore ...
It'd be a hell of an addicted life; a cat's life would be luxe!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
My BS detector always goes red-hot on stories that blame a careless smoker for starting an inferno, because - despite having smoked for 15 years, I've yet to start even a small fire with a cigarette. If you throw a cigarette into gasoline, it goes out. If you throw it on some dry leaves, it goes out. If you throw it on cloth, it'll burn a hole...but then, it'll go out. If you throw it on some sawdust...well, I haven't tried that one - but I suspect it'd still go out. And since the building is covered in flame-retardant asbestos, I'd think it'd be even *harder* to light on fire. I concede that it is *possible* that a lit cigarette, combined with optimal environmental conditions, could start a fire. But to have 10 floors go up in flames certainly suggests that the structure itself (or something in it) was highly flammable to begin with.
A little Googling brings up the fact that "inspectors knew there was a blatant disregard for even the most basic fire-safety rules":
Oh, but "on the 6th floor N/W room 13 pallets of batteries and 19 drums. Many cigarette butts were found along with a Weber black small BBQ". Yeah, I can really see why "investigators theorize [that] a worker carelessly chucked a lit cigarette, igniting the blaze" (that started on the 17th floor). Surely it wouldn't have anything to do with the repeated fires they were starting from demolition, or the "burning activity" near gasoline, or even the indoor BBQ. Or, that both the inspectors' and the companies' ass would be on the line if they were found negligent for the fire - much easier to blame a nameless construction worker.
I'm not a smoker. I have never been a smoker. I know I am not alone in being pissed off at smokers and the allowance of smoking at the workplace. I'm not pissed off at smokers because they are hurting their bodies, the smell, or second hand smoke. I'm pissed off because they get to take a 5-15 minute break (typically towards the 15 minute end of the spectrum) 3-4 times a day, on top of their lunch hour and 2 scheduled breaks. If I told my boss that I was taking a 15 minute nap in the middle of the day, he'd flip. Yet my coworkers can take a 15 minute smoke break at 4:55 and actually get overtime for 10 minutes of his smoke break. WTF?!?!?!?! Yet if I complain about this to my boss or my bosses boss, I just get told that I'm not being sensitive to the needs of other people. I just don't understand how people can't limit their smoke breaks to the two scheduled breaks and lunch times. If you want to smoke, do it on your own time, not on the clock. Tell people they have to punch out to take an extra break and we'd have a riot break out.
By the way, I've seen this happening at a few different places now. If I claimed I was addicted to Hacky sack, do you think I could take extra hacky sack break times through out the day?
Sometimes life can be tough. But if I'm feeling a little battered and see someone on a smoke break - outside in the 120 degree heat of a Phoenix summer, I always feel better. At least I'm smart enough to not pay good money to look stupid, smell bad and destroy my lungs in an effort to enrich a tobacco company that wouldn't urinate on me if I caught fire using their product.
Stop whining, the solution is simple here bud...
Just start smoking and get your ten minutes of overtime too.
(Of course there is another way to look at it-- those 10 minutes are more like charity for people who are drastically reducing their lifespans by smoking...)
Sprinklers are generally only useful AFTER something catches on fire, while ashtrays are great at preventing things from catching on fire in the first place. I'm thinking the ashtrays would be more effective.