Pacific Power Batteries interview questions

They called me to go over resume I turned in one of the first questions were if I was a cigarette smoker and I am a smoker but I explained that's it's mainly a weekend thing or something I can do at home but he explained that a person has to be off cigarettes for at least 6 months before he could hire them because people who smoke have more health problems and call in sick more than people who don't smoke so I was imidietly declined employment for that reason and that was the end of our conversation . My thought is that I understand what he is saying but I've been a cigarette smoker for a long time I worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years and cigarettes have never caused me to be absent from work and I never had a problem not smoking at the place I worked at in fact my attendance record was outstanding because I rarely am sick the only times I have called in was once when I had a stomach flu and when I had a death in my imideiate family (my mom) so to assume that a smoker will get sick more than a non smoker is garbage and in a way it feels like discrimination