Work Survey Reveals Discrimination
Results from a survey conducted by vape company E-Cigarette Direct has revealed that vapers are concerned about returning to the workplace due to restrictions and discrimination
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by Dave Cross
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E-Cigarette Direct says: “In contrast to smoking, people are legally allowed to vape inside, there is no evidence that passive vapour causes harm to bystanders and the government actively encourages employers to provide a smoke-free area for vapers.”
The company offered a £100 Amazon voucher incentive to get vapers to take part, ending up with 1931 of its subscribers providing comprehensive answers.
E-Cigarette Direct found that 75% of respondents said they are not allowed to vape at work although some are allowed to but only by sharing dedicated areas with smokers.
The company says: “This is in direct contravention of Public Health England guidance, which states, ‘...vapers should not be required to use the same space as smokers, as this could undermine their ability to quit smoking and stay smokefree, particularly among those most heavily addicted’.”
E-Cigarette Direct points out: “The result was significantly higher for women (81.5% not allowed to vape) compared to men (70% not allowed to vape). This is likely to be tied to gender differences in industry.
“For example, vaping restrictions were most likely to be found in Finance, Banking and Insurance (88%) followed by Government, Health and Education (86%). It was least likely to be found in Construction (44%). Only 12 (1.4%) of our female respondents worked in construction, compared to 85 (8%) of our male respondents, while 30.7% of our female respondents worked in Government, Health and Education.”
Based on the findings, E-Cigarette Direct makes a number of recommendations for employers:
- Our data shows that requiring vapers to smoke outside or in dedicated smoking areas increases the risk of vapers relapsing to smoking and can damage staff retention. It can also make employees more reluctant to return to office work after working remotely.
- We recommend that employers consider a dedicated vaping policy which clearly distinguishes smoking from vaping. While not every employer will want to allow vaping in the general workplace, creating a dedicated, indoor vaping area could help smoking cessation rates, reduce the risk of relapsing to smoking and improve employee morale, reduce anxiety and aid staff retention.
- To alleviate anxiety amongst non-vapers, it’s also worth providing guidelines for vapers. This could include recommending the use of low-powered devices which produce smaller amounts of vapour or blowing vapour down instead of into the room.
- In addition, it’s clear that many vapers experience a negative reaction towards their vaping habit. That’s despite the fact that almost all vapers use vaping to quit or cut down on smoking or to prevent relapse. We recommend employers ensure that they and their employees are aware of Public Health England’s guidance on vaping; it is at least 95% safer than smoking and it is the most effective and popular way to quit smoking.
References:
- E-Cigarette Direct - https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk
- Vaping in the Workplace Study - https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/research/vaping-work-study
Photo Credit:
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
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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