Employers grapple with e-cigs indoors
By Chris Burritt, Bloomberg
When John Castellano feels like a smoke, he simply heads to the break room at Kraft Foods Group Inc.’s Garland, Texas, factory.
The 39-year-old technician has been able to indulge his habit in common areas at work since he started using electronic cigarettes, which emit vapor rather than smoke.
E-cigs are “very liberating,” said Castellano, who used to join the other nicotine addicts at the factory’s designated smoking area.
Twenty-five years after companies began banning smoking in the workplace, the increasing popularity of e-cigs is forcing them to review their policies. Many corporations still ban “vaping” as they wait to see if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will regulate e-cigs as strictly as regular smokes. Yet Kraft and Walgreen Co. allow local managers to set the rules. Smaller firms, especially creative agencies and Web startups, have already adopted a more laissez-faire attitude.
U.S. e-cig sales will triple this year to $1.5 billion and double annually through 2018, according to Euromonitor International projections. After that, sales of e-cigs may increase 10 percent a year and reach $124.5 billion in 2028, surpassing conventional smokes for the first time, Kenneth Shea, an analyst for Bloomberg Industries in Skillman, N.J., said.