University of Leicester – Experiences And Thoughts About Vaping At Work
Dr. Charlotte Smith and Professor Jason Hughes are two sociologists at the University of Leicester who have been funded by The Tobacco Advisory Group at Cancer Research UK. Their project looks at how organisations are managing vaping in workplaces and how employees engage in the practice at work.
It’s a topical study given last week’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping launching its report titled “Vaping in workplaces and public places”, encouraging employers to take responsibility for improving the health of their employees by encouraging vaping.
Smith and Hughes say: “Despite being around for well over a decade now, vaping remains in somewhat of a legal, ethical and practical quandary in the UK. It is also a very contentious issue and misinformation often surrounds its health benefits.”
Charlotte explains why the study is needed: “Regarding workplaces, the government states that it is an organisation’s responsibility to determine its own policy, meaning a law regulating its use is currently unlikely. Whilst it is thought to be 95% safer and less cancer causing than smoking, we do not understand much about its social and behavioral standards and how it operates in practice in workplaces and organisations, places where we spend considerable amounts of time.”
“The early parts of our study show significant variations in policies across different industries and that there is much confusion generally around its use. However, our key questions remain the same and include: Where do employees vape? When do they vape? Have there been any reactions from fellow colleagues? Who decides where vaping is allowed at work?”
“At the moment we are particularly minded to hear about people’s experiences and thoughts on this, including vapers, non-vapers, smokers and non-smokers as means of being able to inform future policies. We have a ten-minute survey open that can be accessed here. All information will remain anonymous and confidential. It will be open until the 31st of December 2018.”
“We are very grateful of anyone who can help and fill this in. People’s experiences and thoughts on this are important. Please get in touch with us by email if you would like to hear more about the study or have any questions for us.”
Queen Mary University - Study on dual users: people who smoke and vape
Professor Peter Hajek is the project investigator for a study being conducted at the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London.
This is the first study of its kind and aims to learn about how dual use of smoking and vaping develops and what proportion of nicotine such ‘dual users’ get from vaping and from smoking over time.
If you are able to take part, researchers will ask you to complete some questionnaires over the phone and provide a saliva sample by post at baseline and again at 3 and 6 and 12 months. In addition to this, if you are interested in receiving help to stop smoking altogether, they will provide you with stop-smoking medication and telephone support.
You will be able to take part if you:
- Are aged 18 years old or over
- Are currently using both EC and CC
- Smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for more than a year before you started using your EC; and used EC for at least one month
- Want to quit smoking altogether
- Are willing to provide saliva samples and complete follow-up calls at 3, 6 and 12 months.
If you are interested in taking part please call: 0207 882 5722 (lines are open Monday-Friday, 9-5pm), or email the team: [email protected]
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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