Fooling your Insurance Company or Employer?

Some smokers want to know if nicotine is present in the bloodstream, and if so will it come up in a blood test. While you may not be able to test for the nicotine itself, your insurance company or employer can test for its metabolite continine. This can be found in the blood for about 10 days after you’ve smoked your last cigarette or had your last chew and is not present unless you use tobacco products. If you use nicotine replacement therapy products, such as nicotine gum, the patch or nicotine inhalers, you will test positive for continine as well.

Some people may quit just for that 10-day period to gain better, non-smoker life insurance rates, or gain employment in an establishment that does not allow tobacco use among their employees. They might think if they could hold out for just the 10 days, they can put up with fooling their boss or get away with lying to the insurance company.

Why not quit for good? Become a non-smoker and enjoy these benefits without the threat of getting let go from your employer or getting sued for committing insurance fraud. Your mindset is usually your biggest hurdle in quitting. Be a non-smoker, even if you slip and smoke early on, be honest with yourself, the people around you, and the companies you deal with. This way when you do slip you won’t need to hide it, which may keep you from becoming a closet smoker. If you hide your smoking, you really are only fooling yourself.