The Whirlpool Corp. has suspended 39 workers who signed up as non tobacco-users for the company's health-insurance program but were later caught smoking or using chewing tobacco on company property, the Associated Press reported April 23.

Workers who were found to have lied on their insurance forms about their tobacco use could be fired, company officials said. Under Whirlpool's smoking policy, tobacco users pay an extra $500 per year for health insurance, a policy that has been in place since 1996. Company officials said that workers don't face blood tests or out-of-work monitoring for compliance.

Sixteen percent of large employers adjust their healthcare premiums based on workers' tobacco use. Whirlpool's crackdown on workers who lied about their smoking is legal, but some see a slippery slope in such tobacco-control efforts. "We shouldn't have to give employers complete control over our private life so they can save a few dollars on medical care," said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute.