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Work meeting about smoking policy/ vaping

norwichvaper78

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Joined
Aug 29, 2016
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hi all,

Tomorrow I am on a union/ company partnership table discussing various items, one of them is no distinction between smoking and vaping in the company policy.

Vapers are lumped into the same bracket as smokers in the policy so you 'could' be taken to task for not vaping in the designated areas.
Apart from the usual Google items available, any advice I can take to the meeting as I'm going to be up against shit hot HR personnel possibly!

Thanks
 
theres plenty on the government website but you will need to search for it as too busy at mo https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2018/02/20/clearing-up-some-myths-around-e-cigarettes/

also worth screenshots of this to show how some hospitals and cancer research uk are moving forward.

research.JPG vz2.jpg vz3.jpg
 
Take all the info you can, PHE, cancer research stuff etc. but I can say from experience a lot of whether or not you can be persuasive will be down to how you present yourself and come across so I would suggest being very positive and putting it across as something that will be consistent with the overwhelming medical view and give your work kudos for being progressive, forward thinking and positively encouraging smokers to think about alternatives.
 
As has been said. And point out that they are actually making it harder for people who are trying to give up smoking by lumping them together in the same designated area. Good luck.
 
My arguement would be...

If you're demonising vapers as smokers, the work force will not switch.

If you allow staff to vape at the workplace, they may look to switch over.

If smokers switch over, the company will save money from smoking related illnesses.

Smokers are known to more likely encounter a cold than a none smoker. And if a staff member is unwell and also a smoker, they'll irritate the cough more and spend longer off work at the cost of the company pocket.
 
Just thought it worth sharing the company policy where I work. I work in an FE college and they have smoking shelters for smokers but they allow vaping anywhere across the site as long as it is not near doorways or open windows.

It may be worth googling other company's smoking policies (Maybe in a similar field would be useful) and use these as examples? I definitely feel it would be wise to go down the "forward thinking" and "progressive" route as has been mentioned. Bare in mind, whatever the outcome, you'll be stuck with it for a while so good luck
 
As above.
I saw some of this on tv the other day, basically one research group has said to an all party body of MPs that they should be encouraging employers to allow vaping at work.
 
The last paragraph of this...especially the last couple of sentences.
HSE recommendations carry a LOT of weight in the workplace, an HSE COP (code of practice) is as strong as legislation if it’s found that an incident occurred because you haven’t followed it, for example.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/smoking.htm
 
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