passive smoking & e cigarettes in the office

[msgilbertblythe]

All around me people are puffing on e cigarettes in the office. I am worried about their health effects - apparently the WHO have called for them to be banned in the workplace. Am just wondering if any of you have had any experience of this in your workplace?

I noticed someone puffing on a e-cig at work and somewhat passive aggressively emailed our Health and Safety person to check if we had a policy about it.

We didn't then....we do now.

We cannot smoke e-cigs in office. We have to go outside with smokers.
I would ask HR if there is a policy!

There is no evidence to show that e-cigarettes cause harm, and as such there is no legal requirement to prohibit their use in enclosed spaces/working environments. At the moment it is down to the individual employer to decide either.

My employer has decided not to ban their use at this time, however to me, if you can't smoke in an area, you shouldn't be able to use e-cigarettes in that area either, but that's just my opinion!

Unfortuntately we don't have a HR department - in an office of about 100 people, crazy I know!

I don't think we're allowed in the office, either - I've certainly never seen anyone, but the people I know who go for smoke breaks smoke cigarettes.

Sensible guidance from ASH here: Will you permit or prohibit electronic cigarette use on your premises?

Most of my clients have decided to ban them in the workplace in line with WHO recommendation. I personally also think it doesn't give a good impression of a business.

A recent piece of case law highlighted the importance of a clear policy on whether use of e-cigarettes is acceptable. Try asking your manager if no HR.

WHO recommendations in this area are a bit contentious.

Use of e-cigs are banned in all our offices.

Also, after a fire, charging e-cigs is also banned.

Are your employers rational enough to also ban mobile charging and laptop charging?

Same type of batteries, same risks. Only ecig fires seem to generate the mass panic though.

we cant vape in the building

Laptops and mobiles mostly have protection built in to help prevent overcharging and fire risk, doesn't mean this protection doesn't on occasion fail. Many ecigs don't have any protection.

I think my employer is very rational. They had a fairly serious fire which, luckily no one was harmed, but closed their production facility for several hours and was caused by an ecig. A ban was completely reasonable and does not stop ecig users vaping, they just need to make sure they are charged up before coming to work. Our work have access to and would have discussed with electric, electronic and h&s experts that probably now know more about ecigs than most people before making a fully educated decision.

I would not like this at work.

I notice e-cigarettes are being banned from bars in this area now.

I like your nn!

WeAllHaveWings that does sound very rational, it's good to hear about people looking into things properly.

ECITA are currently working on a British Standard for ecigs and have promised to include protective circuitry built into all batteries on the market.

Meanwhile, general advice to vapers is to be safe, ideally use a battery that charges via a standard micro USB charger, e.g MVP, eleaf iStick, because those do have the protective circuit built in.

If you use one that you screw the business end of your battery in for charging, make sure it says OUTPUT 4.2V, 500mA (0.5A) and don't plug it into any mains charger that is over 500 mA (see pics) and, of course, buy from a reputable source.

A big problem is that USB is no longer a standard. The newer chargers, for e.g. 2A Apple device chargers, are rated at a much higher current than lots of other things that can be plugged into them.