Monday 22 June 2015

E-Cigs, ASH And London Hospital Bans

Last week some brain donors at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London were enthusiastically tweeting their shiny new piece of totalitarian scumbaggery.
Those welfare-scrounging shitgoblins at ASH were very pleased to publicise this, of course.


Yes, that's the 'vaper's friend', ASH, gleefully telling the world about how vapers are to be told to get orff the land they have paid taxes to build, maintain and run, by people whose salaries they fund. Along with the smokers who have already been deemed sub-human by repulsive ASH-driven policies.

Now, I'm sure someone will point out that ASH were being paged by Guy's and St Thomas' and just retweeted when they saw "smokefree" - because they're customarily gleeful when it is smokers being kicked off the premises - and that it doesn't reflect their true thoughts on the matter.

Well, firstly, why is the government giving them our cash if they are so fucking shit at doing basic research? You may think that churlish, but considering most bans these days also tend to include e-cigs did it not cross their nasty vindictive minds that vaping might be included? Didn't they think to check, or could they just not care less?

Y'see, if they had looked into it further, they would have read the new policy at Guy's and St Thomas' which has this to say as justification for e-cigs being included.
11.1 E-cigarettes are included in the Smoke-Free Policy and their use is not permitted in Trust premises or grounds. While there is some evidence that they may support smoking cessation, they are currently not regulated as a tobacco product or as a medicine in the UK. 
Translation: E-cigs are all around us here in London, and we see people not smoking every day because of them, but we are so crassly ignorant that we will ban them until some overpaid public sector desk-monkey can grind their way through the snail-like morass of self-serving, intransigent, civil service psychobabble and actually do something useful. Spending public money is our game and we will discard sense and reason in favour of supporting anyone else who is employed in the same economy-draining scam. Screw health, who really cares anyway?

What's more ...
11.2 Staff must ensure that any patient bringing an e-cigarette into the hospital is offered approved nicotine replacement therapy as per Trust NRT withdrawal protocols. 
Brilliant! I see you're using something that works. I'm afraid you're not allowed that though, I insist you have some of this expensive state-funded Pharma tat that is completely useless instead.

It's even more astonishing when you factor in that the St Guy's and St Thomas' policy authors have purposely ignored advice which doesn't agree with their all-out ban. For example, they cite this Royal College of Physicians (RCP) statement which is ambiguous about vaping, while ignoring this more forthright RCP opinion.
Health professionals should embrace this potential by encouraging smokers, particularly those disinclined to use licensed nicotine replacement therapies, to try them, and, when possible, to do so in conjunction with existing NHS smoking cessation and harm reduction support. E-cigarettes will save lives, and we should support their use.
I think that's pretty clear. It tends to suggest that the RCP do not advocate banning e-cigs and offering anyone using one a fucking patch instead!

Still, I'm sure the 'vaper's friend' will be behind the scenes working hard to get this ban lifted. Won't they? Well actually, no. We know this because Guy's and St Thomas' also cite ASH as support for their policy, specifically this document, which states.
"ASH has worked with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Trading Standards Institute to produce guidance for organisations considering whether or not to ban the use of electronic cigarettes on their premises. This provides a structure for thinking through the issues but leaves it to organisations to develop their own approach informed by the evidence."
They could have said something like "there is no justification whatsoever for banning e-cigs unless you're an authoritarian cockmuppet" but instead ASH - as usual - merely issue a few limp, fence-sitting platitudes when talking about e-cigs, which effectively tell Guy's and St Thomas' to carry on Doctor, ban 'em if you like, we really couldn't give a toss.

For the avoidance of doubt, it's worth remembering that every vaping ban - and I do mean every one - is directly as a result of 'passive smoking' hysteria and junk science promoted by ASH for the pure purpose of increasing their own bank balances. They and their fellow tobacco control industry grifters often talk about 'evidence-based policy' but there has never been even any junk evidence that smoking outdoors is dangerous, yet ASH support outdoor bans. As for e-cigs, there is not even evidence of harm to the user themselves, but the foundations were laid for anyone to complain about just about anyone else thanks to ASH's hideous and fundamentally anti-social smoking ban. In an ideal world, ASH wouldn't be schmoozing vapers and pretending they are on the side of the angels, they would instead be on their knees whenever they meet a vaper, apologising profusely for their stupidity and kissing anything that remotely looks like an arse.

Sadly, the upshot of the St Guy's and St Thomas' health-irrelevant policy is that we are left with yet another pointless, illiberal, and ludicrous ban based on not even a scintilla of harm to anyone. The culture of 'public health' fascism writ large.

They make my skin crawl, all of them.


21 comments:

nisakiman said...

Well if nothing else, I suppose this mindless pogrom has given me some insight into how helpless and bewildered the Jews must have felt in 1930s Germany. Unless you are the specific target of malicious propaganda and malevolent sanctions from those who have power, you don't really appreciate how it feels. I understand, and empathise, a lot more now.

I realise that we are not being subjected to anywhere near the same level of inhumanity, but it's a matter of degree. I don't doubt that if the same political climate existed today as existed there and then, TC would be only too happy to see the untermenschen rounded up and put into cattle trucks to be taken away for 're-education'. For their own good, of course.

Mr A said...

To be honest, vaping bans like this don't bother me too much. It's just evil idiots exercising their supposed authority. If you are a vaper it's an easy matter to just slide under your covers and vape away. There's no tell-tale sound of a match lighting, no plumes of tobacco smoke. I've vaped on flights where vaping was banned before now without an issue - just exhale downwards and the vapour is gone in no time. Let them prove you've been vaping - it's damn near impossible to do.


I do find the smoking bans on hospital grounds indefensible though. Only 5 months ago I was stuck in a hospital basically waiting 24 hours for my dad to die. It was a pain going to a smoking shelter, tired, hungry, depressed and stressed out my mind but at least there WAS one so I could smoke, steady my nerves and reflect away from his bedside on what the Hell was going on. If I couldn't have smoked at all at such a stressful time, it would have been even more Hellish than it already was and if I had been accosted by some tyrant for smoking "in the wrong place" I really would have taken their head off. No ifs, no buts - fist first. And don't even get me started on the mental unit bans which are just deliberately sadistic and counterproductive to patient care.....

castello said...

http://wivapers.blogspot.com/2014/12/why-i-oppose-vapor-bans-and-why-you.html

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Very true, I do the same. But it's a brilliant example of the disgusting nature of the tobacco control industry and the underlying irrational authoritarianism that drives it. They know very well it's not enforceable on any level and not sanctioned by law, but they do it anyway. They are rotten by their very nature.

Anonymous Vaper said...

ASH only seem to "support" vaping, or at least be friendly towards vaping when it suits them. ASH claims to be an ‘evidence-based advocacy organisation’ yet they seemingly have no qualms about disregarding evidence when popular opinion is not on their side. They just love to pick and choose when it suits them.

woodsy42 said...

So if I wander in there with my e-cig containing nicotine free fruit flavour I'll be offered a nicotine patch - brilliant!

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Awesome policy, ain't it?

Norbert Zillatron said...

Hell's Professionals.

bakerb said...

What is going through their heads. In total contradiction to their stance on the Welsh indoor ban on vaping wtf ?

http://www.ash.org.uk/media-room/press-releases/:ash-statement-on-banning-the-use-of-e-cigarettes-in-public-places

Carl Hughes said...

ASH are two faced, and cannot be trusted.

gray cooper said...

The political waste of tax on Nazi style tobacco control is not necessary and utterly reprehensible.

truckerlyn said...

And as a result we end up with a hell of lot more stressed, anxious and angry people!


Then there are people in the position of Mr A (and I have been there too) who can and often do become irrationally aggressive, verbally and/or physically. The more this happens the more they are driving people into mental health problems they never had before, or that were mild enough they could deal with them themselves through smoking which has helped many without costing the NHS a fortune in medication!


These jumped up little hitlers are no longer interested in the well being of people, whether they be patients or the relatives of patients who worried, concerned and saddened by whatever is wrong with their relative, who may well be terminally ill. They have absolutely no compassion or any sense of perspective and most definitely in the WRONG PROFESSION!

JonathanBagley said...

I can relate to what you are saying. I vape on planes, trains and buses. The problem is, that as this way of thinking becomes the norm, airlines might eventually take measures to stop vaping. The simplest being to confiscate eliquid from hand luggage.

jude said...

I have seen a lot of comments from anti-smokers about refusing medical care to smokers, letting them die, and even killing them by poisoning the tobacco with cyanide, etc, and increasingly vapers are seen the same way. One comment from a deranged anti-smoker/vaper, suggested that eliquids should be poisoned so that vapers get cancer too, because apparently its not right that vapers should be able to enjoy something that looks a bit like smoking, without dying for their pleasure.


I think the political climate is ripe for this type of fascism and hatred of a minority group, to flourish. We are seeing the rhetoric ramped up on a daily basis. Being the child of Jewish refugees, I've listened to the stories from the people who were living in Germany at the time of the Nazi rise to power, and the economic and political issues surrounding their rise, and formation of their ideology. It certainly is not beyond my belief that it could happen again. The focus on the ideology of healthism, is fertile ground that would very likely nurture this type of fascism, and murderous regime. How far do they have to go? The health fascists have being laying the groundwork for decades now, all it would take would be some psychopathic anti-smoker/vaper to gain enough political power, for this to happen again.


I'm sure that ordinary people living in Germany before the rise of the Nazis, would never of dreamed that what happened, could of happened. State sanctioned persecution and hatred of a minority group is a very very dangerous thing to allow to continue unchecked.

emma2000 said...

Almost five years ago I had a thoracotomy in Guys and used an e cig with no problems. They were quite unusual then and nearly every nurse and Dr. Asked where I got it. A couple of years ago I attended St. Thomas and they had a nice smoking garden. Just hope I never have to go to either again! I am still bemused at how all this happened in such a short space of time.

nisakiman said...

Qatar Airways (with whom I have flown on several occasions) make a big point of announcing before the flight that e-cigs are forbidden on the flight, and indeed I've read of an unfortunate girl who spent several nights in a Qatari jail before being fined and deported for vaping on a Qatar flight. Which is why when I fly with them (they are otherwise an excellent airline) I retreat to the loo for a sneaky vape. But you may well be on the nail with your prediction. It wouldn't surprise me at all, the way things are going.

I keep asking myself: "Where will this all end?".

The prognosis is not good at all.

Norman Brand said...

'Absolutely no compassion.' I agree.

ManxStuart said...

Or hell for professionals?
Well, must be for a conscientious professional trying to practice amongst such numpties.

Rojeans said...

Tiocfaidh ár lá (our day will come)

JonathanBagley said...

Rip up your donor card and don't give blood. Who'll be the one laughing when the anti-smoker needs my perfect organ and I'm freshly dead? Ha Ha

JonathanBagley said...

ASH knows it can say what it wants, because the EU TPD, which ASH supported and welcomed, effectively bans vaping.