Banning e-cigarettes in enclosed spaces will help to clarify an area that has sparked rows in workplaces across the UK say Wolters Kluwer’s HR and Health & Safety experts Croner.
Over the last three years, Croner’s Business Support Helpline has seen a sharp increase in calls as e-cigarettes have grown in popularity.
Mike Allen, Croner MD at Wolters Kluwer, said:
“Smoking in enclosed (or substantially enclosed) public places, including workplaces was banned in July 2007. However, the legislation does not apply to e-cigarettes as they do not appear to fall within the definition of “smoking”. This has presented employers with a dilemma of whether or not e-cigarettes should be used within the workplace.
“The fact that ministers in Wales are looking to ban e-cigarettes in enclosed spaces, will massively help employers with this increasingly difficult area, as there are currently no rules for them to follow.”
There are a number of issues surrounding e-cigarette use in the workplace:
- employers are under a statutory duty to protect the health and safety of the workforce
- the use of e-cigarettes at work may not fit in with the intended professional image of the organisation and its likely promotion of employee wellbeing.
Mr Allen, says: “The majority of workplace smoking policies do not specifically define smoking, and in the absence of any specific definition, a court of law would defer to the Health Act 2006 which define smoking as ‘lit tobacco or anything lit that contains tobacco, or of any other lit substance in a form in which it could be smoked’. At present there is no evidence to indicate that there are any health effects from e-cigarettes, therefore it’s up to the employer to decide whether they are permitted in the workplace and enforce a ban through the organisation’s internal policies.
“A workplace smoking policy can normally be adapted very easily to extend the definition of smoking to include the use of e-cigarettes, however as with any other changes to employment policies, care needs to be taken to ensure the change is effective.”
Title image courtesy of Xavierrap23 via Wikimedia Commons
The real dilemma is not law and the workplace but rather how we encourage millions to quit smoking and the resultant drain on medical services, lost productivity and absenteeism. Imposing a ban on vaping is draconian, ill conceived and short sighted. Where will it stop, with bans on fizzy drinks, crisps, sweets?
The real dilemma is not law and the workplace but rather how we encourage millions of people to quit smoking and the resultant drain on medical services, lost productivity and absenteeism. Imposing a ban on vaping is draconian, ill conceived and short sighted. Where will it stop, with bans on fizzy drinks, crisps, sweets?
I think they should be banned in the workplace, as we have done in our workplaces. It is no different to other things that are legal that we ban in the workplace too – it is legal to drink alcohol but you can’t have a G&T or a beer on a sunny afternoon. It’s legal to wear a bikini but they aren’t allowed either. Employers can decide which rules they want for their workplaces and have to consider the whole workforce not just some of the workforce.
We banned smoking in indoor buildings and vehicles in 1991, a long time ago. For a few years there were a few ‘smoking rooms’ after that but they were so smoky even smokers didn’t want to use them so we got rid of those.
Smoking breaks are allowed (outside and off the premises) if people are on a break but smoking breaks in-between are not allowed although i’m not convinced that this is followed 100%.
We had regular smoking cessation groups until last year when there were so few people interested (one person) that the NHS won’t come back into the workplace to run these so they offer one-to-one support in a local NHS building instead
ECigs are an unknown entity until (and if) they are regulated so employers are right to assess the potential risks of unknown chemicals in the workplace and remove the risk from the workplace by banning them