Sunday 14 April 2013

Bar Staff Are So 2006

Via Jacob Grier, it appears that Washington DC is looking to include e-cigs in their general smoking ban.
In an interview, Alexander said e-cigarettes are being “used to usurp the smoking ban.” 
“It is smoking, is an inhalant and it’s similar to smoking,” said Alexander, chairwoman of the Health Committee. “We don’t know what the ill effects of this are, and it’s still a bother to some people.”
Usurp the smoking ban? Similar to smoking? A 'bother'? Is that what is defined as compelling evidence worthy of a comprehensive illiberal ban these days?

Well, yes, Mill be damned. This is just about the extent of justification against e-cigs in enclosed spaces, and is the desperately flimsy reason being promoted globally to ban vaping indoors. Just ask the BMA.
The BMA is worried that the more people start using e-cigarettes the more it will normalise something that looks like smoking. They have called for the ban on smoking in public places to be extended to e-cigarettes.
It's utter garbage, of course, but when has anything tobacco controllers say since the late 90s not been?

Yet when it is pointed out to the tobacco control industry that smoking rates have ceased to decline after smoking bans in just about every jurisdiction, we are told that it was never about making people quit, oh no. It was solely to deliver salvation to bar workers, so it was.

I sense some disingenuous mission creep here, and a lot of having cakes and eating them.

I'm also concerned about this sudden lack of concern for bar staff. They were, after all, the poor put-upon people being Sarin-gassed every night which made a comprehensive smoking ban urgently necessary for the UK in 2006. MPs weren't swayed by pub customers being 'bothered', or by shocking tales of smokers putting their hand to their mouth occasionally. It was the mythical menace of dozens of barmaids popping their clogs in the line of duty wot swung it.

Now bans on completely harmless e-cigs are being urged simply because users can get round the smoking ban?

Silly me. I thought it was supposed to be about health.


4 comments:

david said...

They didn't anticipate e-cigs as part of the grand design. As far as the public is concerned, the whole point of the ban is that SHS maims and kills. Many smokers believe this and have dutifully complied, totally ignorant of the fact that they have been deliberately deceived. One good thing is that this is bound to cause division among the antis. And I really can't imagine that the licensing trade is so stupid as to go along with it. You know, to accept a ban of all things smoking-related (again) and expect on onslaught of non smokers to ride to the rescue (again).

DP said...

Dear Mr Puddlecote

“It is smoking, is an inhalant and it’s similar to smoking,” said Alexander, chairwoman of the Health Committee.

Desperation writ large.

Still, it gives the poor dears something to do.

DP

PS Connecticut on the same path:

http://courantblogs.com/capitol-watch/lawmakers-considering-expanding-smoking-ban-to-include-e-cigarettes/

JonathanBagley said...

Yes, ecigs came out of left field and are the anti tobacco industry's worst nightmare. On Saturday I had one cigarette - the first for two or three months. It tasted like the ones I smoked on fishing trips when I was 16. Absolutely wonderful.

nisakiman said...

Yes, as JB says, they are TCI's worst nightmare given that they've been promulgating an ideology masquerading as a health issue. I've read quite a few statements from antis on the subject that positively splutter with indignation at the fact that smokers appear, via e-cigs, to be avoiding the punishment so carefully constructed for them. And to compound this flagrant flouting of the rules, (as decreed by tobacco control), they look like they're smoking!!! And worse still (and this is really, really bad), they seem to ENJOY it!!! Egad! This aberration must be stopped! This is not how it's supposed to be! Smokers are supposed to be cowed; guilty; penitent; paranoid; denied! They are untermenschen, and they must be constantly reminded of that fact!

I will watch with some amusement (having the luxury of being an outside observer) as this saga unfolds over the next year. Who knows, it may be the undoing of TCI.