Despite growing up with anti-smoking messages, smoking among millennials is on the rise. The difference is, as in many things, they are going digital and choosing e-cigarettes: battery-powered devices that heat flavored liquid instead of tobacco to simulate smoking without the smoke. Since arriving in the United States from Europe in 2007, e-cigarettes have grown into a billion-dollar industry with more than 450 flavor varieties on the market.
The Millennial Market
Manufacturers have latched onto millennials as their demographic of choice, racking up significant marketing bills in the process. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that spending on e-cigarette ads grew from $6.4 million in 2011 to $115 million in 2014.
The NH Department of Health and Human Services reports that NH millennials make up just under half of all adult smokers in 2015, and a national CDC study found Millennials also lead usage of e-cigarettes. This has big implication for employees as the Pew Research Center reports that millennials became the majority of the American workforce in 2015.
Health Debates
Manufacturers argue e-cigarettes are safer than traditional smoking products and work as effective smoking-cessation devices. Adding to that perception is the innocuous term "vaping" for using an e-cigarette. Vaping refers to the water vapor produced by e-cigarettes. However, this may be a misnomer. Dan Fortin, president of Breathe NH, a nonprofit in Manchester that promotes lung health, says e-cigarettes actually produce an aerosol that can contain formaldehyde, lead and nickel.
An FDA study of two e-cigarette brands found them to contain carcinogens called nitrosamines as well as diethylene glycol, which is found in antifreeze. The study also found some harmful chemicals that are also present in tobacco, including anabasine, myosmine and B-nicotyrine, as well as highly addictive nicotine.
But due to e-cigarettes’ relative infancy, the long-term health effects of either first- or second-hand vaping is unknown. “It’s the uncertainty that’s causing us to be cautious,” says Fortin. “We’ve tried to be objective, because the jury’s still out.”
The debate over whether to treat e-cigarettes like tobacco has been politically controversial. Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, wrote an open letter last year addressing Gov. Maggie Hassan’s proposal to define and tax e-cigarettes like other tobacco products.
“More studies emerge showing that vapor products are far less hazardous than smoking and effective at helping smokers kick the habit,” wrote Conley. “With that in mind, imposing a new excise tax seems counterproductive to the vital public health goal of helping smokers quit.”
However, the NH Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t endorse e-cigarettes as a cessation device, and Kim Coronis, policy and program manager at Breathe NH, says that no national medical or health organization has approved them for this purpose either.
This may be what’s keeping employers who subsidize smoking cessation programs and products for employees from holding e-cigarettes in the same regard as FDA approved cessation products like nicotine patches and gum.
Vaping at Work
Tonya Rochette, vice president and partner of HR outsourcing firm HR Partners in Concord and Dover, says most employers are remaining hesitant about allowing e-cigarettes in the workplace until they are officially defined as cessation devices.
In the meantime, Rochette advises employers to exercise common sense and consider employees’ allergies and exposure to second-hand aerosol from e-cigarettes before allowing their use in the workplace.
According to Jim Reidy, a shareholder and labor and employment attorney at Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green PA in Manchester, employers have the law on their side.
The NH Indoor Smoking Act (ISA) took effect in 1991, stating that tobacco use in places of public accommodation—including the workplace—must be confined to permitted areas.
When ISA was updated in 2007, the definition of smoking was expanded to include “any device designed to produce the effect of smoking.” Coronis says that was intended to cover e-cigarettes.
Since NH law forbids workplace discrimination based on smoking as long as the employee follows company policy, Reidy says that employers were concerned about allowing less harsh e-cigarette use in the office while tobacco smokers still had to go outside or to a designated area.
But because of the added provision in ISA, Reidy says employers can and are treating e-cigarettes like smoking. He adds that a new law specifically dedicated to banning e-cigarette use indoors might not be necessary.
Legislative battles continue both in Washington and Concord over how to classify e-cigarettes. According to Coronis, there won’t be many answers until scientists can observe the long-term effects of e-cigarette use and exposure a few years down the road.