E-cigarettes – helping employers and organisations

[Ron]

publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2016/07/06/e-cigarettes-helping-employers-and-organisations-create-vaping-policies/

[Bobsbeer]

Very good advice and should help roll back many of the ban type policies seen not only in health and council settings, but in private as well. Hopefully pubs will also take this on board and vaping becomes an acceptable practice. No doubt the Glantz's of this world will be furious, but who gives fig what they think. Tonight's debate should be interesting in HOL.

[joeten]

I hope the Health boards in Scotland have a copy of this, it would make a sensible approach.

[sydsut]

Very interesting, I don't know what happens in your area but recently the bus stations in Lanarkshire and Glasgow have new signs added stating that it is an "Offence to smoke, including Electronic Smoking Devices". I have asked at the EK bus station and have had no reply as to which law this pertains too. I suspect that's because there isn't one relating to Vaporisers, E-cigs etc., thus are these signs themselves illegal?

[joeten]

I think you are most likely correct. sydsut

[Perpetua]

I regret to say our company has included vaping/ecigs in with their policy on tobacco smoking . . . . which I find a touch double standards as we sell the very bog standard cigalikes and are keen to promote them as a healthier alternative.

Public Health England would be doing many smokers and vapers a huge favour if they sent a copy of their advice to all Companies and Businesses whatever their size.

[uksteve]

As long as there is any doubt , policy makers in the work place can make whatever rules they wish in regards to the use of e-cigs , so as a user of the bus station you have to abide by their rules , so in my opinion far from illegal .

They are not saying you are breaking the law but you are breaking their rules

It may be called public transport but the operators of the buses and bus stations are private companies working in the public sector

[sydsut]

It says it's an Offence so therefore a law must pertain to it.

[Deleted]

Play safe sydsut - vape with the smoking bus drivers - if you see tabby ends on the floor = good place to vape - otherwise don't vape there!

Just be polite and courteous!

Jane

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2016 21:05:49 GMT sydsut said:

It says it's an Offence so therefore a law must pertain to it.

It can be an offence against company rules or local by laws sydsut ... it doesn't have to be an offence in the eyes of the law to be enforceable by either an employer or a local authority.

[Bobsbeer]

It's like the huge sign outside our local hospital. It says smoking is against the law anywhere in the hospital or grounds. Just because they say it doesn't mean they are right. It's perfectly legal to smoke outside. It may be contrary to hospital policy but not the law.

Lancaster hospital now employ a security person to stand by the front door telling smokers to move to the nearby road.  How much does that cost I wonder?  I felt like using my mod and having a toot, just to see what he would do, but I couldn't be bothered as I was leaving anyway.

[enagee]

I think the sign says it all... the law does not say vaping etc.

[enagee]

Can I smoke outside a hospital?
In November 2013 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued a
Guidance on Smoking cessation in secondary care that recommended banning NHS staff
and patients from smoking on all hospital and clinic grounds. It states that secondary care
providers have a duty of care towards their patients and that they should promote healthy
behaviours as well as help their patients quit smoking while they are under their care.
Commenting on the new guidance, Professor Mike Kelly, Director of the NICE Centre for
Public Health said:
"We need to end the terrible spectacle of people on drips in hospital gowns smoking
outside hospital entrances. This guidance can help make that contradiction a thing of
the past by supporting hospital smokefree policies to make NHS secondary care an
exemplar for promoting healthy behaviour." 22
Implementation of this guidance is left to the individual responsibility of local commissioners
and/or providers. Critics have pointed out that not only is this measure difficult to enforce, it is
also “inhumane” to prevent patients from using their way of relieving stress as well as
“nagging” them and “bullying” them into quitting smoking while they are in hospital.