Does Smoking Hurt My Chances of Getting Disability

Does smoking hurt my chances of getting disability.  Disability and smoking conflict with each other. Smoking hurts your health. Smoking may keep you from getting security disability. At the hearing, the judge will ask you if you smoke. The judge will want to know how much you smoke. Smoking causes lung damage. Smoking makes it difficult to breath. If you say you are disabled because of lung problems, the judge will not believe you if you smoke. You will loose credibility if you continue to smoke. Since smoking is believed to cause other health issues, the judge may consciously or unconsciously prejudiced by Claimant’s who smoke. The wise approach would be to eliminate smoking long before a disability hearing. According to a press release by the Center of Disease Control dated October 4, 2007, smoking prevalence among people with disabilities is nearly 50 percent higher than among people without disabilities (29.9 percent vs. 19.8 percent).