Wayne. This has been discussed a number of times on the forum. Try clicking on the search field above above and type in electronic cigarettes you will gat a list of all previous discussion. The manufactures claim as you say that these products only produce steam so they are outside the smoke free legislation. I am not aware of any prosecutions that have tested this yet but if there is indeed no smoke then it could well be OK from the Smoke Free requirement. You may want to prohibit it for other reasons, e.g. if you are in the food industry there is still hand/mouth contact so there would still be a hygiene issue, or if the person is driving a Fork lift truck, you may think using the devise may impede their safe operation of the equipment, but obviously that’s down to our old friend risk assessment. Hope this is of some help. Brian

Wayne Sorry about that I was not meaning to have a go at you for posting a question that we have already discussed, I have just tried the search and it works ok for me, which is a bit of a surprise as It usually me that has the problems! Hopefully by adding another reply and getting your post back to the top of the list someone can give you an explanation as why its not working. Brian

It's probably a case of wanting to get one over the system so to speak. If the persons seen with it hanging out of his mouth it's a topic of conversation with his colleagues on how he's beat the management. It's like why do contractors wear their hard hats on back to front ? Because its controversial ! Just a personal opinion. From personal experience if something is banned either in work or anywhere else, there will be someone who wants to buck the system. It's human nature i'm afraid

I agree with GC, we had a member of staff using this device to stop smoking and had absolutely no problems from any other staff members because he was using it. If this is banned from the workplace, what are they going to do when staff put a pen in their mouth?? ban pens??

I think people may be talking about two different products here. Yes there are products that look similar to a cigarette (a plastic tube basically with something inside) and then there is the electronic cigarette marketed as a substitute. I have read reports that these can give a higher “hit” of nicotine and so I cannot see how they would help you stop smoking. There is some medical discussion as to whether the increased levels of nicotine they provide will produce any health issue we do not yet know about. As for banning sucking pens – if it’s a food factory then yes ban sucking pens, biting finger nails (a nasty habit I admit to) or any thing else that has hand mouth contact. If some one is driving a vehicle we all appear to agree that you should not operate a mobile phone or alter a sat nav as it distracts you, but are quite happy for some one to keep taking one hand off the wheal to put a cigarette in your mouth we think that’s OK? Not sure how often it happens but there must be road accidents caused by people dropping hot ash on their laps, do these electric cigarettes get hot and what would happen if you dropped one? Is there an injury or fire risk? As I said originally they may be acceptable under smoke free legislation but acceptable in the work place – Risk assess. Brian