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.

[waterlego6064]

Vaping has saved me (and by extension my husband and kids) from the grips of my insatiable addiction to fags. I am so grateful for that. I love how my lung capacity has increased, and my resting heart rate has dropped.

I vape in my car and out and about. I wouldn’t vape in an office, shop or restaurant. Some pubs allow it (especially in Brighton near where I live- hipsters!) so I’ll do it indoors at places like that.

[Rebeccaslicker]

What a load of absolute melodramatic cobblers. Nobody is "demonising vaping". Everybody is saying it is better than smoking.

FOR SMOKERS.

For people who don't smoke, it's different. You cannot guarantee that there are no adverse health risks. You can postulate and theorise and google all you want to, but you don't have a crystal ball or a time machine, and you simply don't know what the effects might be. Nor could you even say what kind of liquid the person standing right next to you is vaping - it could be something brought in from abroad with other ingredients in it.

It may well be you're right and there are no effects at all. But we don't know that yet, and however much faith you personally put in the studies, it still doesn't justify expecting people who don't want to vape to put up with passive vaping.

[HuskyMcClusky]

the risk to public health that follows that demonisation of vaping.

What risk? Vapers can vape in all the same places they used to smoke. What’s the problem?

[Rebeccaslicker]

I suppose vapers might not want to inhale smoke or be tempted by cigarettes - but then they are going to walk past smokers outside all the time anyway. But perhaps pubs etc could split smoking areas into vaping and smoking or something that would help?

[Ollivander84]

By demonisation - making out that vaping is as bad as smoking. That affects public health

[HuskyMcClusky]

By demonisation - making out that vaping is as bad as smoking. That affects public health

Vaping is not as bad as smoking. Everyone knows it.

That doesn’t mean vapers must be allowed to vape anywhere and everywhere, and saying so is not ‘demonisation’.

[Rebeccaslicker]

It's so back to front. Slarti seems to think that you should be able to vape in front of people "until there's conclusive proof of harm".

Surely it's the other way round. You don't do it until we know that there is conclusive proof that there is no harm. And the jury is still out on that, it's only been a few years!

[Slarti]

rebeccaslicker Your anti science arguments could be applied to absolutely anything.

Husky Having non smokers stand with smokers puts the non smokers at risk. It also perpetuates the misconception that vaping and smoking are analogous. It also undermines the effectiveness of vaping as an alternative to smoking if both are prohibited and treated almost exactly the same.

[Ollivander84]

Smokers can actually be the worst I've found for comments about vaping
How it stinks, it's dangerous, it's creating new cancers... heard it all! As long as I don't have to stand with smokers, I'm happy anywhere

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

waterlego Really? DH tried really hard and couldn't get a battery operated or a mains wired one to go off! Mmm! More experimentation may be needed

Rebecca Oh! You made an assumption, I don't smoke, or vape! And your insistence on the world revolving as you tell it to is equally selfish!!

You can postulate and theorise and google all you want to, but you don't have a crystal ball or a time machine, and you simply don't know what the effects might be. Nor could you even say what kind of liquid the person standing right next to you is vaping - it could be something brought in from abroad with other ingredients in it. There you go again, the same could be said for your insistence that other people vaping is damaging your heath. You are putting a very low possible RR to you over and above a proven high RR to others. Selfish and bad science.

Basically there are far bigger things out there that are most definitely coming to get you (and every one else on the planet), stop sweating the small stuff!

[Rebeccaslicker]

Well yes. If I don't choose to put something into my body, why should you be able to choose that I should have to do so?

The difference between vaping and other drugs or food or ingested substances is that I have no choice but to breathe - and if you vape near me, I have to breathe what you're vaping out. It's unbelievably self centred to say, "ah but I read the science and I think it's ok."

Nobody is saying you can't vape. Just that you should exercise the same consideration for non vapers as you expect vapers to be given in where and when you choose to do it.

[Rebeccaslicker]

True - but I can choose to avoid those. I can't choose to avoid a colleague vaping right next to me just because he or she can't be arsed to pop outside for a few minutes!!

[Rebeccaslicker]

(Or a partner )

[HuskyMcClusky]

Having non smokers stand with smokers puts the non smokers at risk.

They don’t have to stand with smokers, they can stand somewhere else in the great outdoors!

I’m an ex-smoker myself. Quitting (cold turkey) was hard as hell, but really, it’s its own reward. The payoff is saving loads of $$ and vastly better health.

I don’t buy the argument that smokers won’t trade smoking for vaping just because they can’t vape inside.

[Rebeccaslicker]

I can't stop laughing at (the couple of) posters thinking it's selfish to ask vapers to vape outside - whilst apparently it's not selfish to expect nonvapers to put up with it inside. Talk about twisted logic.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

I can't stop laughing at (the couple of) posters thinking it's selfish to ask vapers to vape outside - whilst apparently it's not selfish to expect nonvapers to put up with it inside. Talk about twisted logic. It's only the exact opposite of your stance - equally funny!

As I said before, there are much bigger, nastier things a lot closer to you that will definitely have a negative impact on your health. The only difference is you personally cannot exert any meaningful control over them. I suspect you are using vaping as a displacement tactic.

[Slarti]

It's so back to front. Slarti seems to think that you should be able to vape in front of people "until there's conclusive proof of harm".

Surely it's the other way round. You don't do it until we know that there is conclusive proof that there is no harm. And the jury is still out on that, it's only been a few years!

Not sure where you've been living but in a liberal democracy my so called back to front approach is the very basis of our legislature. It isn't that everything is banned apart from a list of government exceptions. Unless there's proof that somebody's behaviour is harming you or putting you at risk of harm then their freedoms should not be curtailed.

[SimultaneousEquation]

Really interesting point by Slarti that in a free society one should be able to act unconstrained by the impact on others.

Almost the exact opposite of the statement in John Stuart Mill’s essay “On Liberty” where, to paraphrase, he makes the point, on the limits of society’s power over an individual, that a person should be left free to pursue his own interests as long as this does not harm the interests of others.

I think JS Mill’s take on philosophy still has the edge over Slarti’s, 158 years on.

[Floellabumbags]

I think that comparing perfume to vape juice is ridiculous. I put my perfume on at home then go out. You might get a whiff of it if I get very close to you but I don't walk round town and spray it asunder like I'm in a Kate Bush video.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

But both Slarti and Mill's are right. They are just speaking from opposite sides of the same coin - rights and responsibilities.

Vapers have the right to vape as and when they choose.
Vapers have the responsibility to vape without pissing other people off.

Otherwise you get the Legions of the Utterly Just moaning and winging about selfishness as if theirs is the one and only viewpoint.

The problem with vaping is there is so much misinformation, popcorn lung etc, that it has become the new smoking, without passing Go or collecting its $200. All the negative attributes of smoking have been pasted onto vaping without a care for the actual science - yes, even in the links the anti vapers have posted the science doesn't say what the headlines do!

[Mrsdraper1]

If you don't like it then complain to the company.

Next

[Jerseysilkvelour]

I hate being in the same room as vaping, in asthmatic and whether it's harmful or not the vape cloud sets me off. Especially in enclosed spaces. The idea I'd have to put up with being made ill because someone wants a quick vape makes me sick.

At my work people were bringing their e-cigs to meetings etc and vaping without asking if it was ok with others around. Luckily the organisation banned it sharpish.

[Slarti]

SimultaneousEquation I think you've misread my post. My argument is the same as Mills'.

[VivaLeBeaver]

I’ve litereally never seen anyone vape in a shop, pub or public transport. I know a friends mum tried vaping in a local,pub recently and was immediately told to stop by the staff.

[GertrudeBelle]

Vaping smells unpleasant and is deeply anti-social.

It's the equivalent of someone squirting cheap body spray in your close proximity, for as long as a vaping session takes, several times per day.

Vapers, would you be happy to work in an office where that was permitted?