A well used ashtray was a prominent feature on every office desk twenty or thirty years ago. Ten years ago there might be a non smoking sign displayed on the wall but the supervisor would quickly produce an ashtray from his desk drawer for any visitor asking to smoke and would close the office door and indulge in a smoke himself on occasion. Today a request to smoke in a place of business would expose you to a sharp “no” and critical looks from those around you.
You may still find some break rooms offered by large company where smoking and non-smoking sections coexist. Government employees have long been required to leave the building before lighting up. A small group of employees getting a nicotine “fix” is often noticed by those entering a building. Workplaces that are not polluted with second hand smoke are cleaner and smell better. Another benefit is the reduction in fire hazard when burning tobacco products aren’t permitted.
For a time, smokers loudly complained about restrictions on their activities but they’ve given up as public opinion is firmly against smoking. There are people who are so strongly anti-smoking they will complain to business management about those smoking outside the building entrance. Companies with outside space often provide sheltered tables away from the building where smokers can indulge their habit in an attempt to please customers and placate tobacco addicted employees.
Workers who frequently leave their desk for a quick smoke are costly to the bottom line of any business. Work is not being done and phones are not answered. Though the absence may be only for a few minutes additional time is lost as the employee recovers his focus after returning from a break. Creative offers were well accepted when businesses began to offer aid designed to help workers stop smoking. Counseling sessions, free drug prescriptions and free nicotine replacement patches and gums were popular initially with employees. Cash awards were very popular.
The tens of thousands of dollars spend by businesses to help employees stop smoking was effective in the beginning. Workers jumped at the chance for free counseling and free nicotine replacement products to help them quit. As time went on, the only smokers left were those who were highly addicted or who had no desire to quit their tobacco habit. Allowing the use of electronic cigarettes at the workplace could be an answer to the problems posed for employers by determined cigarette smokers.
Electronic cigarettes produce a vapor that quickly dissipates like steam and is not harmful to anyone in the smoker’s vicinity. Walls and ceilings do not become dark with the tar from tobacco smoke in a room where e-cigs are used. Nasty odors released by the chemical compounds of burning tobacco are totally absent with e-cigarettes. The use of e-cigs in an office environment would seem a logical way to meet the needs of smokers without any effects to other workers. Unlike other nicotine replacement products, e-cigarettes are not invisible. The use of electronic cigarettes in the office may be an acceptable practice in the future.
The cigarette shaped e-cig is the most common design but the mouthpiece may also be purchased shaped like the plastic tip on a small cigar. Designs often replicate the tobacco cigarette closely. That alone can cause a negative reaction when adding electronic cigarettes to the office is proposed. Some anti-smokers are against use of anything that resembles the use of tobacco in any way.
E-cigarette popularity and use continues to grow with consumers looking for a safer alternative to tobacco. Electronic cigarettes at the workplace could be a common sight five years from now as the true facts and benefits of e-cigs become more widely known and accepted.
Mary Kay Rivers has become a true expert on all facets of e-cigarettes. Her publications about what would change if all smokers would start buying e-cigarettes and about the best e-cigarette are very popular.
Tags: Addiction, electronics, gadgets, Health, Inventions, Lifestyle, Medicine, Other, Products, Quit Smoking, Stop Smoking