Using e-cigarettes in the office is becoming a burning issue

Some UK employers have already banned 'vapers' from using e-cigs at their desk – but there is no legal reason to do so

If the person sitting next to you at work started using an e-cigarette at their desk, would you challenge them?

The use of e-cigarettes has again become a hot topic after it was reported that ministers in France were planning to ban their use in public places.

Some UK employers have already taken a stand. A few years ago, the insurer Standard Life banned the use of e-cigarettes at the desks of its 5,500 staff. And councils in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle and Cheshire East seem ready to outlaw the electronic cigarette too. Cheshire East Council is worried about "the use of e-cigarettes … in council offices and other locations, and this is causing concern among staff". The council wants to ban e-cigs in all of its premises and vehicles.

Normal smoking in enclosed or substantially enclosed public places, including the workplace, is banned under the Health Act 2006 and associated regulations. The ban includes manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes, pipes and cigars. Unlike tobacco products, however, e-cigarettes are battery powered devices that vaporize a nicotine solution to replicate smoking without the use of tobacco and they are not likely to be covered by the Health Act. They do not give off smoke and are also reportedly not harmful to others.

This leaves employers with a dilemma. If the use of e-cigarettes is not unlawful at work, should those employees that use them be treated in the same way as normal smokers and be directed to the designated smoking areas? Users of e-cigarettes could argue that, as they are not actually smoking, they have a right to be provided with a smoke-free environment and should not be put with tobacco smokers (although they could be designated their own smoking areas).

Or should "vapers" be included in an employer's policy-wide ban from smoking in the workplace, even though their use is not directly covered by the legislation applying to normal smokers? This may come across as being unsupported of those who are using e-cigs as a means of giving up smoking.

Since the introduction of the smoking ban, it is broadly acknowledged that smoking is associated with break times rather than work time. A wider use of e-cigarettes could, therefore, also promote more workers taking excessive breaks if employers insist that they cannot be used at the desk. And yet if employers allow them to be used while at the workstation, they face the risk of complaints from other workers who may be upset, especially if they are trying to give up smoking without the use of e-cigs.

It is also the case that the safety of the chemicals used in the manufacture of the e-cigarettes has not yet properly been determined. In fact they are to be licensed as a medicine in the UK from 2016 in response to concern about the lack of regulation surrounding them.

It is up to each employer to decide how their workforce is accommodated by the use of e-cigarettes. They may wish to adopt a supportive role, but the wider implications will need to be addressed too.

Do you think "vapers" should be treated by employers in the same way as normal smokers or allowed to smoke at their desk? Would you be irritated if your work colleague "lit up" an e-cigarette in close proximity to you?