Shocked at colleague vaping in the office

[dazedandconfused2016]

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.

[MsHopey]

I had it in my last place of employment. I was pregnant and we have one small female single toilet with no window. And one small male (stinky) toilet with no window. That was it. Everytime I went to the ladies toilet it stunk of strawberry vape and you couldn't see you have in front of your face. When I got pregnant I had to start using the men's toilet because I'm not good at confrontation and all the managers knew it was happening and they weren't really bothered. Because a quick vape in the toilet was better than someone actually taking a full break to go outside. The vaper actually saw me coming out the men's toilet and asked me why I was using it, I actually had some balls that day and I said it was because she was vaping in the windowless women's toilet and I don't know what it would do to my baby. She shrugged and nothing changed. I think it's quite selfish when there is still lots more research to be done.

[SimultaneousEquation]

Having people switch from smoking to vaping is unarguably a good thing for public health. You could argue, and many do, that at a population level, mass passive exposure to vape smoke is much less of a health risk than the exposure of 20% of people to cigarette smoke.

I agree with both statements. It is better for people to vape than smoke. But I haven’t chosen to inhale nicotine-laced vapour, and I haven’t consented. The scientific papers I linked are not as one poster suggested, the daily mail, (fwiw I don’t think the DM does clinical trials or peer-reviews articles). Nicotine is involved in cancer pathways and particularly so for bladder cancer.

I have chosen not to smoke or vape. Why should I have to inhale the by-products of someone who has made a less responsible choice?

[Slarti]

Even if a study claims to prove that vaping is almost entirely risk free, why should I be made to take that risk, or the risk that the study is incorrect, when I don't vape in the first place?

Your perfume could be giving passers by ebola. I mean yeah, there's probably a study saying it isn't, but what if it's wrong? Why should other people take the risk of the study being wrong???

[HuskyMcClusky]

YANBU. It’s bloody disgusting.

People used to have to go outside to smoke, why can’t they do the same to vape?

[SimultaneousEquation]

Ye Gods, we really do live in the post-truth era.

The body of scientific evidence indicates that vaping is much, much lower risk than smoking. This does not mean it is risk free and ultimately it is better for people not to vape than to vape. Nicotine is involved in cancer pathways.

This is what the evidence says. “Alternative facts” based on what your Auntie Stella thinks or what Dave from Pensions thinks, are not adding clarity or truth.

I’m glad for the ex-smokers who have switched to vaping: it’s really good news to see tobacco use decline. Please vape somewhere I don’t have to inhale it, though, as I have not chosen or consented to inhale nicotine-laced steam.

[annandale]

I don't wear perfume much except at home, after a horrible journey on the tube years ago next to a man wearing aftershave.

Yes I'm glad people are vaping instead of smoking but God it stinks. We had a pub with a vaping area at the end of the road and you could smell it 100 yards away. Stopped now thank God.

[exLtEveDallas]

Well you’ll be pleased to note that there is more nicotine in a raw tomato than in exhaled Vapour of even the strongest liquids

[SimultaneousEquation]

And here’s the actual science on nicotine content in foods:

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619

Which if you look at the research indicates that you’d need to eat rather more than one tomato to ingest 1 microgram of nicotine, and because the digestive process means absorption is far from complete, most of it wouldn’t enter your system.

[exLtEveDallas]

And the nicotine present in Vapour is far far less than that. So your point is?

[Rebeccaslicker]

It's just not hard to grasp, but apparently it is for some people

Studies are just that - studies. Medicine and science have moved on a lot, but they can still get things wrong. As it stands, vaping is great compared to smoking - but it is still worse than NOT vaping for those of us who don't smoke or vape. So don't force it on us. We don't care about your stats or studies. However small or large a risk is, you shouldn't force someone else to take it just because YOU think it's safe.

[Slarti]

"Studies can be wrong"

Can someone complete the bingo by saying we've had enough of experts?

[Rebeccaslicker]

Slarti - explain to me why someone who doesn't want to do something should have it forced upon them please?

[Rebeccaslicker]

I mean, even if we only take the smell - if I sat near you and burped or farted all day so that you had to breathe in my unwanted gut gas, I bet you'd complain about how fucking rude and selfish it was...

[Wolfiefan]

I've never encountered anyone vaping anything that doesn't bloody stink. For that reason alone it's not acceptable. I wouldn't want it in my house, car or office.
It does make me uneasy anyway. I think that's because it looks like smoking rather than a realistic understanding of how it affects someone doing it IYSWIM. I can see how it's a useful tool for smokers but it's also seen as cool by some people. It worries me some people start it who didn't smoke to start off with. I can't see it as a harmless habit.

[user1840873076]

TBH, I understand where you are coming from with regards to vaping in the workplace while bans are in place regarding it. however, the majority of studies actually investigate the health risks to the actual vaper not those around. The cloud (exhaled vaper) is exactly that water vaper the same as the clouds in the sky. I can understand about the workplace scenario however I believe so many people are misinformed about vaping.

[LunasSpectreSpecs]

It;s not socially acceptable in offices, irrespective of whether it's bad for you or not.

it's bad enough when you get a waft of that sickly sweet disgusting smell when you pass a vaper in the street, can't imagine what it must be like in a confined space. YUK.

[Rebeccaslicker]

The NHS says that there is "limited research" but that passive vaping is a "relatively small risk" compared to passive smoking. this is what I mean when I say that we shouldn't have it forced on us by the selfish ones amongst vapers who have convinced themselves that it's fine. I don't want to take even a small risk based on limited evidence, ta - take your stinky sweet shit outside away from me and my bump, please!

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

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!

Except they don't set of fire alarms. And yes, I have been present during an experiment to test this! But I do know that many companies use this urban myth to ban vaping in offices. It's easier than telling someone desperate to quit smoking that his colleagues would all prefer he die than they had to get even the vaguest hint of sweeties they hadn't sucked themselves!

[Slarti]

Slarti - explain to me why someone who doesn't want to do something should have it forced upon them please?

Because in a free society you don't get to control what other people do to suit your own sense of smell. If I don't like your perfume I have no right to tell you not to wear it. That right does not exist. I'm not usually one to go for all this "snowflake generation" stuff but posts like yours really fit the bill.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

this is what I mean when I say that we shouldn't have it forced on us by the selfish ones And you see absolutely nothing amusing in that statement?

[Rebeccaslicker]

Nothing at all. I find it sad if you're so weak willed you can't give up your little stinky stick but that's not funny, is it?

[Rebeccaslicker]

And slarti - if you think it's just about the sense of smell, the point has seriously passed you by.

[waterlego6064]

Curious I’m not sure about that. I have manage to set off two smoke alarms, one in my home and one in my caravan when I vaped directly underneath the unit.

[waterlego6064]

My devices produce large volumes of cloud, maybe that’s why?

[Slarti]

Unless there's conclusive proof of a significant risk of harm to others then it really is just about the smell. You don't like it so you don't want others to do it so you resort to anti intellectual, irrational and ad hominem arguments that are not just wrong but tragically contribute to the normalisation of a misconception that vaping is analogous to smoking, the demonisation of vaping which inevitably follows that misconception and the risk to public health that follows that demonisation of vaping.