Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 9 10

AIBU?

Shocked at colleague vaping in the office

250 replies

dazedandconfused2016 · 05/12/2017 17:26

Just that really. I think it's selfish, irresponsible and rude.

I work in several offices as I'm freelance, thankfully not very often at this particular workplace. I know that vaping is banned in another department of the same company so one would assume the ban applies throughout all departments.

Obviously the rest of the team are turning a blind eye to it. Perhaps because the individual concerned has a level of seniority.

I do not accept that vaping is "safe". Too little is known about it to say that definitively. In fact, some studies have indicated that there are health risks associated with vaping:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vaping-with-nicotine-is-heart-risk-r5tfssgt7

www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/concerns-explode-over-new-health-risks-vaping

Of course, some might say that if I don't like it I could stop accepting work from that employer but I imagine that I will be confronted by the same problem at other workplaces.

OP posts:

Report

iamyourequal · 05/12/2017 20:50

Yanbu. I bet it's a breach of company policy. I wouldn't put up with that. The woman at the desk opposite me used to do it on the fly when I popped out the room thinking nobody would notice. I always knew because it stinks and used to make my eyes sting, instantly. She eventually stopped thr practice, before I had to report it to HR, when she realised i was telling thd truth about my eyes!

Ollivander84 · 05/12/2017 20:51

Would I vape around a pregnant woman in an enclosed space? No. Same with children. Not because I don't think it's safe but because it's etiquette/courtesy. My pregnant friend was fine with it and I occasionally vaped around her
I would however vape in a park etc around people or somewhere open air
Same with pubs etc, I always ask first which is common courtesy and solves most issues!

HereBeFuckery · 05/12/2017 20:54

Go outside, druggie
So, you're in favour of all drinking being relegated to outside then? In favour of coffee shops not being allowed to serve coffee indoors? I'd happily accept being called a 'druggie' if drinkers and coffee addicts accept it too.

Welshmaenad · 05/12/2017 20:54

@Rebeccaslicker I wouldn't sit down next to a pregnant woman and start vaping without asking her if she minded, just as I wouldn't sit down next to ANYONE and start vaping without asking if they minded - even if outside. Not because I believe there's any risk of harm to anyone but because I know some people just don't like it and I don't want to piss them off/don't have the energy for a scrap. I wouldn't have done it when I was a smoker, either.

If I'm already vaping outside and a pregnant woman chooses to come and sit next to me, that's her choice, given that she can clearly see what I'm doing. She can choose to go elsewhere.

But generally I try to be considerate, careful of where the vapour blows as much as I can control it, and I don't cloud chase, it's only a little device so I'm not chuffing away like Ivor the Engine anyway.

catgirl1976 · 05/12/2017 20:58

I vape. I vape at work, in the car, on public transport, in pubs, in cinemas

If someone asked me not to I wouldn't but no one has ever noticed because if you hold in the vape and have a machine with low vapour or set it to that nothing comes out. I could vape right next to you and you wouldn't know I was doing it.

All the sound research shows it is safe. The research to the contrary has long been debunked. There is no passive vaping and done right there's no steam or smell

SimultaneousEquation · 05/12/2017 21:00

It’s not no-risk. It’s not like breathing air.

Nicotine is a carcinogen. Smokers get bladder cancer because of the nicotine not the tar. Your vapes make me inhale nicotine. I’d rather not.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 05/12/2017 21:03

It’s not no-risk. It’s not like breathing air. There's far more in the air around you than in any vaper's cloud!

You are focussing on the small thing, ignoring the big bad thing bearing down on you!

Rebeccaslicker · 05/12/2017 21:04

Nearly all the vaping posters here sound to be very considerate, in which case I have no issue with it. It's just the ones who think it's ok to force it on everyone else because the research says it's ok that piss me off (my DP being the worst offender here).

What I do hate is the bubbly noise it makes. Argh!

catgirl1976 · 05/12/2017 21:04

Nicotine is not a carcinogen.

RestingGrinchFace · 05/12/2017 21:08

YANBU. It's no different to farting all day long or lighting up a scented candle. It may not harm your coworkers but it does pollute the workplace with smells (that may make others feel sick or just be unpleasant). What a wanker.

MrMeSeeks · 05/12/2017 21:08

Since when was nicotine a carcinogen?

FunnysInLaJardin · 05/12/2017 21:13

I vape and have done for about 4 years. I feel so much better than when I smoked.

I wont vape around people and dont vape at work. In fact today I went to buy a new battery in the local vape shop and it was full of vape and the woman serving me was vaping on a massive tank as she served me. I thought that was rude tbh and will order on line in future.

Folk just need to be considerate and as for the AIBU, I agree it is rude to vape around other non vapers.

SimultaneousEquation · 05/12/2017 22:04

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553893/

Nicotine is a carcinogen.

SimultaneousEquation · 05/12/2017 22:09

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878331711001409

...and the bladder cancer research.

It does my head in how many people think that vapes are just like calorie-free sweeties, rather than merely a less-harmful, but still cancer-promoting, way of feeding an addiction.

ReginaldMolehusband · 05/12/2017 22:37

None of that research shows nicotine is a carcinogen. The IARC, who classify human carcinogens, are quite specific on this.
No one thinks ecigs are calorie free sweeties and they are not cancer promoting or else I rather doubt Cancer Research UK would approve of them.

Shocked at colleague vaping in the office

Shocked at colleague vaping in the office

TooManyPaws · 05/12/2017 22:41

Actually, I did get an asthma attack when following a vaper into work. Being enclosed in a sickly sweet cloud of vapour had exactly the same effect on my chest as any other cloudy damp air.

SimultaneousEquation · 05/12/2017 22:47

They are far less harmful than smoking, but more harmful, to you and others who have to breathe your vape smoke, than not having to breathe your vape smoke.

ReginaldMolehusband · 05/12/2017 22:52

"but more harmful, to you and others who have to breathe your vape smoke, than not having to breathe your vape smoke." No evidence for that though is there? If it's good enough for Cancer Research it's good enough for me. Maybe the Daily Mail is the go to place for health info, seems like it.

cathyclown · 05/12/2017 22:58

We will never be able to escape every possible threat to our existence these days, be it food, pollution, exhaust fumes, climate change, over use of antibiotics and all the rest of it. Depressing isn't it.

Vaping looks benign sometimes in the big picture.

Halfdrankbrew · 05/12/2017 23:03

I shared a small office with 3 people who did this ALL DAY constantly, not intermittently!!! I never experience headaches but was going home with one everyday and had a v dry mouth even though I drank plenty. Ended up effectively having to grass the people up (they were doing it on the sly) even though I was very good friends with them.

We worked at a university as researchers so not as strict as some workplaces in terms of enforcing rules, when they were caught red handed they started to lock the office door so no one could catch them. I was told unless I raised an official complaint again them the uni couldn't do anything. Whenever I mentioned how it wasn't good for them they'd tell me it's all hearsay and not proven (we're talking about very intelligent people here!).

I got so fed up I just started working from home or stayed in the lab which had no windows to avoid sitting in the smoke filled office. It was so bad whenever I did go in there I had to open the window because of the smog in there. I just can't believe people think it's ok to do this in public or confined spaces, I get equally annoyed when people do it on the train too.

Gudgyx · 05/12/2017 23:06

I vape, mine is one of the ones that doesn’t actually produce steam. Used to use it at work, until other vapers with big steam machines set off fire alarms all over the country. Now no vaping allowed!

Skarossinkplunger · 05/12/2017 23:12

It’s legally bit the same as smoking because to smoke you have to first set alight something.

Skarossinkplunger · 05/12/2017 23:13

Sorry legally not the same

ReginaldMolehusband · 05/12/2017 23:29

If anyone else is "shocked" at someone vaping at work, here's the latest official PHE guidance. Some twats posters say vaping is the same as smoking but not according Public Health.

Shocked at colleague vaping in the office

Floellabumbags · 05/12/2017 23:29

I vape. I vape at work, in the car, on public transport, in pubs, in cinemas

Well you're a fucking joy.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 9 10

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.