[Closed] Vaping in the workplace

As far as vaping its no better than smoking,

In what way ?

Bit off topic but, I've just recruited a guy via internal transfer and I'd been informally advised not to take him on as he smokes/vapes. It appears that people perceive that as he takes 10 mins out every hour or so he's lazy/non productive.

There appears to be prejudice developing against folks who vape etc I'm glad I took the guy on based upon his interview as he's excellent and works hard to cover the breaks (one of those who commented spends longer in the kitchen each hour)

Btw I've never smoked

I appreciate the irony of the other worker being as bad but a 10min rest break every hour (on top I presume of the entitled rest breaks) is a lot of resting. Working hard the rest of the time doesn't cut it as you are meant to be doing that anyway. Unless there is a culture of 10 minutes off every 60 for all then thats ok. I don't think that's anti smoker/vaper just equity in time off. It's smokers who feel entitled to 10 mins off every hour in addition to the coffee making breaks, the toilet breaks and a full length lunch break who give the rest a bad rep as workers or colleagues.

In what way ?

In as far as keeping your dirty second hand chemical shit to yourselves,I dont mind used CO2 but the rest of the stinking crap.

I dont mind used CO2

Probably just as well you would struggle to breath without it.

Probably just as well you would struggle to breath without it.

CO2 is deemed an asphyxiant gas, isn't it. So not really...

In my workplace smokers / vapers don't get any extra breaks 3 breaks in a 13 hr shift.

a 10min rest break every hour

Whilst they said it's "perceived" rather than actually the case, that's almost working a four day week!

The biggest issue I have with smoking at work is that the same concessions must be offered to non-smokers. Do they get the same time off in not-smoking breaks?

I'm lucky enough to work in a fairly relaxed environment, so it's a non-issue. It's a bit more regimented in call-centre areas as coverage has to be managed, but outside of that people can go for coffee / smoke / play pool as they feel the need.

3 breaks in a 13 hr shift.

Unless the law is different in Scotland, or I'm misremembering which is entirely possible, that's breaking the law as you're legally obliged to a 15m break every four hours.

As is the usual, it's banned where I work under the no smoking policy. I can't say I really mind it though, I wouldn't want someone blowing huge vapour clouds over me but generally it's a fairly pleasant second-hand smoke experience.

In as far as keeping your dirty second hand chemical shit to yourselves,I dont mind used CO2 but the rest of the stinking crap.

You sound like fun. You do realise.....

[img] [/img]

😀

You do realise.....

These days you just end up cold and wet missing half the conversation

but generally it's a fairly pleasant second-hand smoke experience.

Got to admit I don't mind it either. It might well turn out to be double hard nasty but there are far worse smell experiences than being vape clouded. I have a bit of a coffee problem but share an office with someone who hates the smell - I'm probably just as antisocial knowing that and still continuing to drink it if not more. My argument is that without coffee I'm a total arsehole (even more so) so I'd be a total hypocrite to think differently of the nicotine addicts.

Due to family circumstances I'm very anti smoking but struggle to get too excised about vaping.

Cougar - Moderator

3 breaks in a 13 hr shift.

Unless the law is different in Scotland, or I'm misremembering which is entirely possible, that's breaking the law as you're legally obliged to a 15m break every four hours.

I am fairly sure its up to 6 hrs one 15 min break, 6-10 a half hour break no more than 6 hrs without a break. We are actually well above the legal minimums -2 of the breaks are unpaid, one is paid

We don't have a current policy, of the 19 people in my office, we don't have any smokers / vapers.

We did have this strange lad working for us for a bit, The Hippest Hipster you've ever met (although he hated the term so we stopped using it), American too, spent a few years traveling South America teaching kids English and somehow ended up here. He fired up this massive looking thing once in the smallest office in the building he shared with one of the directors, within 30 seconds our interim policy was decided on and it was classified as a paddling offence.

I don't like the smell of them, I know they're supposed to come in all sorts of flavours, but they all seem to smell the same. I believe the way the industry came from no where to huge in a few short years is suspect, as is the claims it's completely safe, or safer, or slightly less deadly than smoker - depending who you ask, I fear the true risk factor won't be known for many years, I hope they're as safe as they claim to be, but I have my doubts, until then, I’d rather not second-hand Vape.

teasel - Member
Probably just as well you would struggle to breath without it.
CO2 is deemed an asphyxiant gas, isn't it. So not really...

Chemoreceptor Negative Feedback

Negative feedback responses have three main components: the sensor, the integrating sensor, and the effector. For the respiratory rate, the chemoreceptors are the sensors for blood pH, the medulla and pons form the integrating center, and the respiratory muscles are the effector.

Consider a case in which a person is hyperventilating from an anxiety attack. Their increased ventilation rate will remove too much carbon dioxide from their body. Without that carbon dioxide, there will be less carbonic acid in blood, so the concentration of hydrogen ions decreases and the pH of the blood rises, causing alkalosis.

In response, the chemoreceptors detect this change, and send a signal to the medulla, which signals the respiratory muscles to decrease the ventilation rate so carbon dioxide levels and pH can return to normal levels.

Source: Boundless. “Chemoreceptor Regulation of Breathing.” Boundless Anatomy and Physiology Boundless, 21 Sep. 2016. Retrieved 20 Mar. 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/physiology/textbooks/boundless-anatomy-and-physiology-textbook/respiratory-system-22/respiration-control-212/chemoreceptor-regulation-of-breathing-1039-6384/

Thanks. I stand corrected.

And it's always nice to have a technical rather than pissy response.

Not allowed on our offices either - it's treated the same as smoking.

The QS's are all in a satellite office just up the road from the main one, and I don't even know where the smoking area would be (no one smokes or vapes among us). Quite a few smoke / vape in the main office.

mikewsmith - Member
Thanks for that, guess I just like rules.... Or have seen too many times what not paying attention to them means for people. Maybe you should try working somewhere that this stuff really matters.

Ahh so now I know what you do, ASDA manager! 😆 Very important stuff you know, harrumphh! 😆

Cheers Scapegoat saved me a lot of typing.

philxx1975 - Member
Nicotine is a drug no ? Makes you wonder where it would sit if there was a drug policy in place.

As far as vaping its no better than smoking, but as usual asshats that do try to justify it.

Tea and coffee contain caffeine, also a drug. The key differences are that they, like nicotine don't really intoxicate or impare you like, Jack Daniel's or cocain would.

Key difference is that someone drinking coffee tends do not enter the blood stream of those sat near them.

Key difference is that someone drinking coffee tends do not enter the blood stream of those sat near them.

That may be relevant as to its social acceptance, but not particularly relevant in the context that mattyfez was replying to (drug policy)

And even related to its social acceptance, "passive vaping" has been studied independently and the conclusion so far is that it poses no risk.

neal - no actually the conclusion was they could not prove a risk. Not the same at all. Nor could they prove it safe.

So far yes. Tobacco once was seen as a health benefit.

[img] [/img]

Thankfully for folk where I work, performance and quality are valued far more than attendance. If my team want to spend 10mins an hour poisoning themselves and can still meet their obligations then that's ok. I'd rather they didn't vape etc but that's just because I'd rather they look after themselves etc

The key point is no one is saying vaping is healthy, they are just saying, and the evidence supports it, is that is lot safer than smoking tobacco.

The nicotine in tobacco is addictive but not particularly harmful in the doses required when smoking or vaping, it's the burning and inhalation of all the other chemicals in tobacco that cause health hazards.

To put it into context, walking down a busy high street with all the diesel cars is probably far more dangerous than passive vaping.

neal - no actually the conclusion was they could not prove a risk. Not the same at all. Nor could they prove it safe.

I'd be interested to read the source of the research, I'm going on second hand info

(although in my defence, it was from a doctor so I presumed it to be reliable)

Neal - its really a semantic point. One of the conclusions from the report IIRC was it should be treated as dangerous as it has not been around long enough to know what the long term effects are.

to say its less dangerous than tobacco smoking is fair enough. To say there is no evidence of harm at the moment is fair enough. To say it is harmless is premature

Edit - I think the links are here
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/08August/Pages/E-cigarettes-95-per-cent-less-harmful-than-smoking-says-report.aspx

Neal - its really a semantic point.

If you say so.
Your interpretation of the current research is very different from that of my doctor
I was just interested to read what you read to reach that conclusion.
(I will ask the doc the same thing now, as it seems it's not as cut and dried as she made it sound)

Edit- this is a genuine concern rather than starting an argument.

Well the fact is nicotine is poisonous, that's a given, it's scientifically proven, so vaping, by definition cannot be harmless.

However, the miniscule doses of nicotine in smoking and vaping are essentially harmless in the context of all the other chemicals present in tobacco, nicotine is simply the addictive component, it's all the other stuff in cigarettes that's highly carcinogenic. And those chemicals are not present in vaping liquids.

Drac » Cheers Scapegoat saved me a lot of typing.

I'm sorry but there's no way you could've written anything as eloquent as Scapegoat and most definitely not without being pissy.

🙂

Neal - I am a pedantic git if you haven't noticed whereas your doctor would be trying to give you the basics simply

I'm sorry but there's no way you could've written anything as eloquent as Scapegoat and most definitely not without being pissy.

Well given I scored 100% when I had to write about the mechancis of breathing some years ago scoring a high disctinction I'm not sure you're right there.

I also didn't need to cut and paste. 😀

Blimey over 20 years ago come to think of it.

Neal - I am a pedantic git if you haven't noticed whereas your doctor would be trying to give you the basics simply

I can't find anything in the links from the page you posted that says passive vaping is anything other than harmless/ of a risk.
I may have missed something as I haven't read it all. However I certainly haven't found any conclusions, as you suggested, that say it should be considered dangerous ?

Well given I scored 100% when I had to write about the mechancis of breathing some years ago scoring a high disctinction I'm not sure you're right there.

Blimey over 20 years ago come to think of it.

Hmmm. In all the years I've perused this forum I've yet to see any evidence of your [s]penmanship[/s] keyboardmanship, so perhaps the passage of time has taken its toll. I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it.

I was right about the pissy bit, though, wasn't I...

EDIT : 😛

I've got dyslexia so to write a lenghty reply on a forum of the quality copy and pasted by Scapegoat takes a lot work from me, There will be somewhere evidence of long typed out responsses but not the standard you thought Scapegoat had typed but then that doesn't fit in with you having a cheap pop at me by saying I was being pissy by poitning out the weakness in your argument. Then you trying to be dead cleaver and claim CO2 stops you breathing so can't possbily be useful at all. Only to find yourself totally embarrasssed meant that you then decide to call me pissy as you looked such a tool, now added by you thinking Scapegoat had typed out his reply.

Hold I need one of these. 😛

nealglover - Member

Neal - I am a pedantic git if you haven't noticed whereas your doctor would be trying to give you the basics simply

I can't find anything in the links from the page you posted that says passive vaping is anything other than harmless/ of a risk.
I may have missed something as I haven't read it all. However I certainly haven't found any conclusions, as you suggested, that say it should be considered dangerous ?

It says no harm can be proved not that its safe - this is a very different thing

find yourself totally embarrasssed

's weird. I really don't feel embarrassment for anything I've written here today or yesterday or ever TBH. I have humility and can accept when I'm wrong. I'm just attempting to fit in by having laugh as most seem to do on this forum. Obviously DezB was correct when he claimed "as with all bants, it's who's doing it." or something. I don't understand that mentality.

As for your writing style and the dyslexia - my apologies. I wouldn't have ribbed you if I'd have known. Sorry.

Edit : And to be fair what you've written is pretty offensive stuff not to mention pretty wide of the mark and confirms the rather nasty side you display on this forum on quite a regular basis, particularly to those with whom you don't have "bants".

As for your writing style and the dyslexia - my apologies. I wouldn't have ribbed you if I'd have known. Sorry.

No offence taken you didn't take a cheap shot just claimed I was pissy due to my short responses.

I'm really not sure how you think I'm being offensive at pointing how you came across but maybe you were having "bants" I've no I"d past caring to be honest.

Anyway as I've say I'm not offended by your claim I can't write more amused to think a forum demonstrates people's writing skills.

pointing how you came across

It actually reads as if you're telling me how it is, to be honest.

But **** it. It's obviously an attempted laugh gone wrong so let's just leave it there, eh.

Sounds like a plan.

vaping in the workplace (or vaping in general IMO):

[img] [/img]

TJ, I'm sorry but your claim sounds like BS to me.

I was told by my Doctor that research has shown that there was no risk associated with passive vaping.

Every bit of research I've read on the subject concludes there is no risk.

You claimed you'd seen reasesrch where....

[quote=TJ]The conclusion was that it should be treated as dangerous

I can't find anything even close to that in any research, or NHS information, and it's the exact opposite of what I was told by the Doctor.

Neal - I am a pedantic git if you haven't noticed whereas your doctor would be trying to give you the basics simply

This doesn't really work either does it ?

You think my Doctor tried to make it "simple" by giving me the exact opposite of the advice generated by the NHS after the research they funded.

Either I've missed something, or you just made up the conclusion because it suited the one you already had.

that research has shown that there was no risk associated with passive vaping.

Does it matter? it's foul disgusting clouds of sickly smelling crap that lingers in the air.

It's plain antisocial puffing them in public.

Does it matter?

It does to me yes.
Thanks.