The meeting of the Nottingham City Health and Wellbeing Board on 30th November 2016 turned out to be encouraging for those who work in the area and have switched to vaping to help them quit smoking. John Wilcox, a member of the board and an insight specialist, urged employers in the city to examine the rules they have in place for smoking and vaping.
In many cases, organisations treat vapers and smokers in the same way. Sometimes, vapers find they must go and vape in the same area being used by smokers. This is hardly conducive to getting healthier, since they’ll be inhaling harmful smoke from other smokers.
87% of councils treat vapers and smokers just the same
While the attitude shown by the Health and Wellbeing board at Nottingham City Council is encouraging indeed, it is not supported by most other councils around the country. A huge 87% of these councils have the exact same policy in place for both smokers and vapers. Nearly one-third of councils require vapers to vape in the same area used by smokers – thus leading to the situation mentioned above.
There is still some uncertainty around vaping when it comes to employers and their attitudes towards it. While some allow vaping, others restrict it in the exact same way they do smoking.
Public Health England encourages vaping in workplaces
Even Public Health England got in on the act last year, releasing a statement encouraging employers to support those who were trying to quit smoking by switching to vaping. Suggestions included the need to set up a separate area for vapers, as well as possibly encouraging more breaks to ensure vapers can vape when they need to.
Will other councils and businesses follow suit in supporting vapers?
It is far too early to say, even though Public Health England found vaping is 95% safer than smoking. There is clearly still some uncertainty surrounding the habit, despite many successful quitters saying vaping was the method they used to help them stop.
As long as employers view vaping in the same way they do smoking, little will change. As time goes on and more people switch to vaping, quitting smoking as they do so, we think the chances will be better that more employers will make positive changes in the workplace.
What do you think? Is your employer supportive of vaping?
