While it was a bit of a hyperbole, I'm not sure how sexual orientation or even general sex practices couldn't also be argued in the same manner I.e. risk. No one has ever died from religious beliefs so I will conceded that point.
What? People die from that crap all the time. Even worse, it kills other people. Don't concede it!
All this really is is discrimination against smokers. There are a million things a employer and insurer could do to potentially reduce insurance premiums, like filter out applicants by race, age, alcohol use, sex, sexual orientation, automobile, weight, neighborhood, hobbies, etc, but they don't. At least not where is blatantly obvious like on a job application. Just smokers. And criminals.
And don't give me that smoke smells like crap excuse. If you've worked in tech you've been close to an overweight person, or someone on a visa that smells even worse. In fact, you will need a smoke to breathe clearly after standing next to them for 5 minutes. Just have to man up and deal with it.
While I don't want anyone telling me what I can and cannot do, the flip side is a person should be able to hire whoever they want. So meh, whatever. I'd just take my talents to some other company.