Is it now time to get annoyed with co-workers vaping in the office? Six in 10 US workers say their colleagues are at it – despite mounting evidence they’re as bad as cigarettes

The jury is no longer out on vaping.

Numerous studies in recent years have shown that inhaling high doses of nicotine and heavy metals in e-cigarettes can cause similar damage to the heart and lungs as smoking traditional cigarettes.

And now researchers are beginning to warn about the dangers of secondhand nicotine vapor, likely leading to a new Alabama law banning residents from vaping in cars with children under 14 present.

But as millions of workers will attest, their co-workers are still vaping en masse in offices and other workplaces such as bars and restaurants across the country.

Its ease of use and absence of odor allows employees to delicately blow at their desks or in the break room without emitting pungent plumes of smoke, which can be odorless or sweet-smelling.

Experts told DailyMail.com that society is slowly recognizing that these devices pose a serious risk to people’s health.

It’s common to see co-workers secretly vaping in the office — nearly 62 percent of employees see it on a daily basis.

A study published in the Journal of occupational and environmental medicine found that 76 percent of e-cigarette users reported vaping at work.

And this is a real concern. The aerosolized by-products of fumes contaminate the surrounding air and can put workers at risk. And non-vapers are fed up, with 74 percent supporting a vape-free workplace. Even vape users — at least 53 percent — are in favor of an indoor vaping ban at work.

Those points represent just one set of findings that point to a growing sense that vaping should be banned in workplaces, bars and restaurants, but in many places it isn’t.

Thomas Carr, the director of national policy at the American Lung Association, told DailyMail.com, “The fact that they’re using them indoors is very disturbing to hear about this, that workplaces here just turn a blind eye because it’s not acceptable to be indoors. vaping.’

He added that a shift to working from home full-time during the pandemic, when people could vape without disturbing anyone around them, certainly contributed to the widespread use of devices once people returned to their offices in person.

Mr Carr said: ‘Not being in a workplace and understanding some of the standards that should exist there and that your vaping is disturbing other people. Because there are probably employees in places where this is happening that tacitly tolerates it, and maybe not even tacitly. And I think it’s just that nothing is being done about it.’

A survey conducted in the fall of 2018 found that a total of more than 78 percent supported a policy of keeping tobacco products out of sight in stores where children may shop. More than 63 percent supported a policy to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes altogether.

The majority of participants – 76 percent – ​​also supported banning the use of e-cigarettes in bars, 83 percent supported a ban in all indoor public places such as offices and casinos, and 87 percent want a ban in restaurants.

Many workplaces have no rules for vaping use in the office, tacitly allowing employees to vape on the devices at their desks.

Dr. Ashley Merianos, a professor at the University of Cincinnati with expertise in tobacco control, told DailyMail.com that the lack of hard and fast rules is a problem: “There could be confusion about whether vaping falls under tobacco-free policies.” in work environments if there is no written policy regarding vaping, especially since these products came to market after combustible tobacco products.

She added: “Even if there is no tobacco-free law prohibiting tobacco use in the workplace, it is encouraged that employers have strict, comprehensive tobacco-free policies that cover combustible tobacco products and non-combustible tobacco products, including vaping. .’

But the days when you could smoke e-cigarettes with impunity in bars, casinos, college campuses and workspaces may come to an end amid a growing body of scientific research showing that vaping can be just as dangerous to your heart and lung health as smoking of cigarettes.

Societal attitudes toward vaping and how harmless — or not — it is have changed noticeably over the past decade.

Part of the shift in perspective came after an outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) that began in 2019 and had totaled more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths by February 2020.

Dr. Jason Rose, a physician who specializes in lung injuries, told DailyMail.com that the 2019 EVALI outbreak finally brought the dangers of vaping into the mainstream.

He said, “That did create a situation where it really got out that, hey, you know, these might not be completely safe. And that was probably a point where it’s like these can actually cause a problem, a clear and present problem.

“These products really came out 10, 15 years ago, and they’ve been getting more publicity lately.”

In a recent report from the American Heart Association and co-authored by Dr. Rose, it was found that vape devices contain a cocktail of nicotine, thickeners, solvents and flavors that likely carry the same serious cardiovascular health risks, including raising blood pressure. and heart rate, such as smoking traditional cigarettes.

The true extent of the health damage caused by vaping, such as increasing the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), will probably only become clear in many years.

Dr. Rose said: ‘Biomedical science and research have progressed significantly over the last 120 years. I think we have an experience of what (health damage from) combustible cigarettes looked like historically that we can use to try to understand a little bit better what these vaping practices are having an effect on.

“We have to be strategic in our research because we just can’t see developing a hard link between product use and COPD, which takes decades to develop. They’ve only been on the market for 10, 15 years.’

And second-hand aerosol cans of high-nicotine vape products, while not laced with the same thousands of carcinogens produced as a by-product of burning tobacco in cigarettes, aren’t as harmless as once thought.

The plumes emanating from a vaping device like a Juul or a PuffBar can smell fruity, sweet, or nothing at all, which scientists say has lull users into a false sense of security.

Vapes spew out 22 times the safe level of microscopic toxins known as particulate matter, which are small enough to cause breathing problems when inhaled and enter the bloodstream.

Dr Rose said: ‘I would say we don’t have a lot of data on the health risks of inhaling second-hand vaping products. I think policies that follow where other inhalation tobacco products are banned (e.g. smoking is not allowed in most closed workplaces) are sensible.”

A separate 2019 study in the International journal of hygiene and environmental health sought to measure the lingering effects of ingesting secondhand aerosol from e-cigarettes after about six hours of exposure to vaping conventions.

Researchers found that chemical markers of exposure to environmental nicotine and tobacco peaked in 28 people who did not vape regularly after attending in-person conferences where they were surrounded by vapor.

However, they did not vaporize themselves. Still, their bodies showed signs of nicotine exposure and how it is metabolized.

In their urine, levels of two substances, cotinine and trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, were elevated, while levels of cotinine, trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, 3-HPMA, and CEMA were higher in their spit. And the concentrations of each varied depending on how much time had passed since the conferences.

The findings indicated that being around e-cigarettes without puffing on them could still lead to higher levels of these substances in the body.

They also blow a gaping hole in the argument of millions of vapers that passive exposure to the vapor emitted by the devices should be harmless because it doesn’t leave behind the offensive smell of a traditional cigarette.

With that growing evidence, more people have become aware of this common misconception and are willing to reexamine the cultural norms surrounding vaping.

As research continues, more officials in states and local governments are introducing different limits on where people can vape.

New York added that vaping was included in the Clean Indoor Air Act in 2017, formally banning it in indoor spaces. It is one of several states that have enacted similar bans, most of them led by Democrats.

In 2016, California enacted its own ban on vaping in indoor public areas, including at work. Illinois passed a similar ban in 2014, while New Jersey passed one in 2010.

Delaware was the most recent to ban indoor vaping with a law in 2019.

As more research emerges pointing to the harmful effects of vaping and the aerosol the devices produce, it is expected that more states and localities will place restrictions on their indoor use.