Is it the employer's right to discriminate against smokers by making non smoking as a requirement for the job?

An employer can hire whomever he/she wants to. It is legal and the right of an employer to enquire that the particular candidate which is about to be chosen is a smoker or not but it is definitely not and employer's right to hire him based on his habit of smoking. Certain measures can be followed in the office in order to maintain a peaceful environment instead to not hiring him/her just for smoking.  

there should be rules to no smoking in the office ... and smoking zone should be outside of the office.. it can facilitates both of them..

No Company has the right to discriminate based on smoking habit of an individual. At the same time I do agree that at some work places smokers are not hired like Hospitals, Religious Institutes, Oil & Gas field & like wise. But there should be differentiate between a chain smoker and a casual smokers. The company should make it clear before hiring that it is the policy of the company not to give breaks apart from the lunch break which in itself sends the message.  By this a chain smoker will quit smoking for the sake of job or he will not accept the employment for the sake of smoking, for a casual smokers it makes no difference.

Individual talent & skills are more important than his smoking habit apart from certain jobs as mentioned earlier which directly or indirectly smoking effects his job, other people or the environment around him/her. But any kind of discrimination in hiring just based on smoking is not a accepted norm nor it is ethical.

Yes. This is easy and % possible if the employer makes it part of the requirement needed for the position available.

That is why every company has it codes of ethics.

Because an employer may dislike smoking and if one of his or her worker smokes, it may bring some dispute between them and may alter effective operation of the business.

Depending on the nature of the job, general behaviours like this can be a part of the requirements of a position, however can not be used to discriminate. The rules and regulations should equally apply to every single employee from top to the bottom. Of course the regulations must be defined clearly, in terms of the areas of smoking, the total break time for a certain period of working hours. 

The best practise, as I have previously tried and succeed before, will be to initiate a campaign among employees to encourage quitting smoking, promoting collective sportive actions for a healthier life and even making a written agreement with a medical facility which will inform the employees on the dangers on smoking, and even help them to deal with it physically and emotionally.

Believe me, you will end up with lots of employees who are thankful to your initiatives on this matter. On the top of that, this will definitely increase the sense of loyalty.

• Discriminating against someone based on certain aspects of their behavior is generally unethical unless it constitutes that the employee is or has been in contravention of the Law at large.
• For smoking this is debatable and it has been known to happen based on certain companies' policies. Some generally do not hire at all for example religious groups and oil and gas for notable reasons.
• Smoking is generally an addiction and the intervention is to try and help rather than discriminate against already disadvantaged groups that are more prone to smoking. Arguably banning smoking may be to their own good.
• Most countries have Laws for the protection of Non-smokers which is why one sees no smoking signs in Restaurants, Trains and some public spaces
• Employers have been known to inclusively create policies that allow smoking for example smoke breaks and creating smoking sections within the work place even though this has been argued not to be fair to non-smokers. Enforce-ability is tricky for those that smoke a lot since it is difficult to monitor each and every employee's movements.
• In as far as hiring goes it cannot be an employer's prerogative to discriminate against people for involuntary behavior .
• This remains debatable still

Ha ha ha.... Its certainly the right of an employer to discriminate and choose their employee based on the requirement....BUT... its always your right and decision to take up or reject these kind of requirements...

Generally hiring should not be on based of habits but depends on nature of job too. If hiring for project where smoking can cause big can make a policy of non smoking. 

Well generally its unethical to hire based on his Habits. I am a smoker but wont mind if he hires me or not because i do know it's bad habit and creates inconvenience for non smokers. Studies also show that smokers tend to go our often every few hours from designated place of work and in the long run that makes them perform less than their colleagues. And aprt from all these the employers sure will have to deal with medical and insurance expenses if something happens.

It is not a discrimination! It is about being fair of giving the right to non-smokers to not being hurt by smelling the smoke !