WELL done Dundee City Council, for banning smoking and vaping in the workplace ("Staff fume at ban on smoking in breaks", The Herald, November 2). It is a courageous thing to do, which has serious long-term health benefits for all of their staff. This is a seriously good move which will no doubt have the nanny state complainers out in droves.
The fact is that smoking is now a small minority addiction. This has come about over 25 years of careful but steady planning to change a culture of smoking that was killing thousands of Scots. I am glad that the Dundee has also had the foresight to also ban vaping, because after over six years of this new way for nicotine addicts to continue their expensive and unnecessary addiction, there is no conclusive evidence that it assists smokers to stop.
Vaping can be with our without nicotine, and although it may be a bit safer than smoking tobacco to get the nicotine hit, there is little or no evidence that vapers who choose to charge their vaping sticks with nicotine are succeeding in eventually giving up their nicotine addiction. In fact many of them are vaping more often in the day and have gone from low doses of nicotine to higher and higher levels.
One argument for Dundee leading the way in supporting ways of eradicating nicotine use and smoking is that as the staff go about their working day they are seen as role models to children and young people. There is lots of evidence from California and other US states that teens who never smoked have taken to vaping big style. They are charging their vaping sticks with not only nicotine but a variety of other drugs, including cannabis.
So well done the politicians of Dundee. Your smoking and vaping workers will eventually thank you for your decision to improve their health and that of their families.
Max Cruickshank,
117 Ascot Court, Glasgow.
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