Slashdot Mirror


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.

23 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sure the point is that you shouldn't be igniting any plant substances in these places as per the fire code. This is my first comment on an Idle post. Idle's layout sucks.

  2. Shampoo by Wiarumas · · Score: 4, Funny

    This idea was invented by Shampoo.

    --
    I will bend like a reed in the wind.
    1. Re:Shampoo by daybot · · Score: 3, Informative
  3. dogs? by butterflysrage · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:dogs? by retchdog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, of course it's obvious. But if it's a human doing the detection, charges of bias can (and would) come up. The dog gives it a veneer of objectivity, and much easier and cheaper than an ion mobility spectrometer.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    2. Re:dogs? by JustOK · · Score: 2, Funny

      unless they "victim" is a cat person

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    3. Re:dogs? by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How would you know if someone successfully hid their smoking? While indoors chain smoking is hard to hide, a stick of gum and a hand wash goes a long way for the casual smoker.

      Not to a non-smoker who doesn't live or work with smokers, it doesn't.

      Your lungs will still smell, even with the gum. Also, are you going to shampoo your hair? Send your clothes out to be cleaned?

    4. Re:dogs? by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Informative

      How would you know if someone successfully hid their smoking? While indoors chain smoking is hard to hide, a stick of gum and a hand wash goes a long way for the casual smoker.

      No. No, it doesn't.

    5. Re:dogs? by v1 · · Score: 2

      what's annoying is going into a bar loaded with smokers for a little while with some non smoking friends. You leave, and can continue to smell the stench on each other's clothes for quite awhile.

      If you find you have to plant your nose in someone's jacket to tell if they've been smoking recently, either you're a smoker, or you're around them too much and it's dulling your sense of smell.

      People come in and out of the door behind me all day long, and I can tell when someone just put out before stepping in. And I mean our door. The outer door is way back there so it's not just sweeping in with them. I don't even face the door and I'm 10ft from it. Sometimes it takes a good 30 sec to make it to me after they've walked by. Smokers have no idea the "aura" they project around them after having smoked a cigarette.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  4. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    So chemical crystallized substances should be fine?

  5. Will it hold up in court? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Really Lassie? Bobby was smoking by the water cooler? And he put out his cigarette the wrong way?"

  6. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by 77Punker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I suppose you're talking about meth, which is not flamed directly but is vaporized by hot glass, AFAIK, so the fire risk isn't the same as smoldering ashes from a cigarette (or joint). Of course, if one of your employees is a meth user, you may have a whole other set of problems to deal with.

  7. I can imagine where this goes by CityZen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  8. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about smoking weed with a vaporizer, would that pass the fire codes? :)

  9. Dog training 101 by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!
  10. Here's an idea by mweather · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe if they had ashtrays, there wouldn't have been a fire.

  11. Re:Designated Smoking Area? by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    Designated smoking areas!?!? What, are you from the '80s?

    Companies stopped providing any sort of concessions to smokers years ago. These days, walking into many workplaces is like walking into a minimum security (for now) prison.

    I started working for a company in Indiana about 7-8 years ago, and right after I was hired, they instituted a zero-tolerance policy towards smokers (I smoke). It was crazy! They actually had 'monitors' that followed employees around whenever they left the main production floor to make sure they didn't smoke. They didn't SAY that's what was going on, they just quietly took one or two people every shift that were due for an employee review, and told them what they wanted. They wouldn't come out and be straight and tell the workers why they were being followed around, and it made working there a little vacation to hell. It was creepy!

    You weren't even to have tobacco in your vehicle in the parking lot. Not that employees were even allowed to leave the building during their shift or anything.

    If they knew you were a smoker, you were pretty much gaurunteed to be "asked" to open your car for inspection every couple weeks. Refusal meant a pink slip on the spot. Cigarette butts in the ashtray were treated the same as if you had 50 cartons and a vending machine in your car.

    Even though I was very well-paid, as I worked in electrical/electronic maintenance and so escaped much of the Smoking Politburo officers' attention, I just couldn't take such a horrible work environment and "East German informer" atmosphere and quit.

    Now, I run my own business where I smoke whenever I want, and there's a sign on the door that informs people that this is a smoking environment. They're free to take their business elsewhere if they object, that's fine with me. If they're such anal-retentive types, I don't want to deal with them anyways.

    I had a college kid come in once and get upset that I stood there smoking and actually threatened me that he'd get the health inspectors and zoning commission to go after me.

    I laughed in his face and told him good luck, as the shop is outside any city or township, and I own the building and the land.

    While he stood there sputtering in outrage, I told him, "Son, you're gonna die early of a heart attack with all that anger and stress...here, have a nice relaxing smoke!". :D

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  12. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by ProppaT · · Score: 2, Informative

    It runs deeper than that. Many large corporations have agreements with health insurance providers that state that no one is allowed to smoke on their premises, forcing workers to leave work to smoke. This might not sound like a big deal to most of us, but many of the large corporations that have bought into this (Lockheed Martin, for instance) have property that dwarfs large college campuses. Basically, you have to drive off property just to sneak a smoke and means you'll probably be away from your desk for 20-30 minutes instead of the normal 5-10 "quick shtang" that people take on fire escapes, outside the front door, etc. It helps the corporation cut costs and it's seen as a positive to everyone besides the smokers themselves.

    --
    Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
  13. Re:Oppressive by raju1kabir · · Score: 2, Informative

    However they would get hit with a discrimination suit if they advertised smoking as the reason for the terminations. Remember, its a legal act.

    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
  14. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by fractoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure you'd be just as glib if it were your pet addiction (whatever that may be) under fire? Just to be clear, I don't smoke, never have, never will. But I feel so sorry for people who have to run off and stand around the corner to smoke at office BBQs and soforth.

    Then again, I guess I can't indulge my vice at ALL while I'm at work. ("Just going out back for a shot of rum" is frowned on for some reason ;) so here's to workplace equality! :P

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  15. Smoking Hinders Productivity by Farmer+Pete · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

  16. I Love Smokers by bgman · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

  17. Re:So they sniff out tobacco... by plague3106 · · Score: 2

    Well, you downing a shot of rum doesn't cause direct adverse health affects in those around you. Smoke all you want in private homes or in you car (with the windows up).. but otherwise, you're around others that don't want to inhale extra toxins.