For my annual health check up, my insurance requires that I am required to do a physical and order lab work. In addition to cholesterol levels, both my spouse and I are required to do a nicotine test. Nicotine tests are now becoming the new rage in battling smoking.
Nicotine tests attempt to detect cotinine which is a metabolite of nicotine. These tests are highly sensitive in detecting the use of nicotine. Some false positives can happen if your diet is high in thiocyanate containing foods like cabbage, broccoli, almonds and mustards, and intake of medications such as amphetamines.
Luckily for my wife and I, we both don't smoke. If we did, we would be required to pay and extra $200 per month per person who smokes unless we toke a smoking cessation class. If you add up the cost of cigarettes ($2000) and the cost of penalties ($4800), the financial savings of not smoking are now becoming even more important than ever. This is not considering the health costs, quality of life, influence on children, etc that probably exceeds the financial cost. You can no longer just check "no smoking" on the form.
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