Tuesday 11 March 2014

Evidence Free Zones: Irish Edition

Last summer I posted two articles on the policies being adopted by train companies regarding e-cigs.

In Train Policy Spotting, we found that Eurostar didn't have one, Scotrail banned them because they're Scottish and that's what the Scottish do, Network Rail said they were cushty and the East Coast line didn't currently ban them but were cracking their knuckles and thinking about it. In This Is An Evidence Free Zone, we discovered that C2C Rail impose a ban because they look a bit like like smoking and South West Trains allow them because they haven't worked out how to enforce a ban just yet.

In the meantime, in a curious moment, I also FOI'd Royal Mail to find out what their policy is. Yup, you guessed it, an outright ban in buildings and vehicles (see their response here).

If you read the reasoning behind each of these bans being applied, or being considered, there is one vital element missing. Can you spot it? Read on for the answer.

Anyhow, the latest train company to go for an all-out ban is Irish Rail. Their justification has to be the most flimsy yet.
IRISH RAIL HAVE taken the decision to ban e-cigarettes on all train services and the DART. 
There is no evidence that the devices cause any harm to anybody standing close to them, but Irish Rail say that they've had complaints from passengers about the smell they create.
No, I'm not making that up, go look at the link for yourself. You can eat a fish and chip supper, pile into a KFC bargain bucket, fart from Donegal to Wicklow, but use an odourless e-cig and you'll be turfed out at the next station because some psychosomatic smokerphobic thinks they can smell something.

Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but weren't bans on smoking something to do with harm caused to passers-by based on evidence which was - and I'm being generous here - inconsequential myth-making which convinced gullible politicos? Stupid and illiberal as that was, at least there was some vague whiff of logic.

But now we have bans based on nothing but "It looks a bit like something else", "Haven't a scooby what they are, might as well add it to the smoking policy", "They're not a patch or gum", and "I thought I thaw a puddy-tat"?

Once again, e-cigs deliciously reveal that none of this hysteria about tobacco and/or nicotine has had anything to do with health. Never has; never will. I think I should get some sort of graphic sorted for that phrase, or maybe a Puddlecote coat of arms with the motto in Latin just for jolly.

Do go read the comments at the Journal.ie piece as it's laugh-a-minute, populated as it is by such a lot of Irish people who have been manipulated and conditioned by imagined fear easier than Pavlov managed to train his dog with real pain.

Good grief.


17 comments:

david said...

I know that it might spoil the funa bit but could a E-cig be created that produced an INVISIBLE vapour but still had the desired effect?

Jeff Wood said...

Italy tried a ban last July, not just on trains but in all "public" places.

Ban completely ignored, repealed in about October.

SteveW said...

I've noticed a few more pub chains joining in with bans.
Notably, Sam Smith's now prohibit them - although the one round the corner from me the girl behind the bar was using one and had no objection to my doing likewise.

Edgar said...

Sed non de sanitate. Odium est.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Ha! Love it, especially your add-on. ;)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I think there are a lot of confused organisations, services and companies around - they really haven't a clue what they're being asked to make a policy on. The blame, as you'd expect me to say, lies squarely with those trying to pretend that there is some kind of harm to bystanders with vaping.


The future will treat them very badly as a result.

John Gray said...

Oh dear, I still find myself irritated in the extreme by the comments of some of the vapers - although the Irish ones were not as stupid as some of their British counterparts. What is this mania about stopping consuming nicotine?!


Fucking Hell, if we use the undisciplined and politically motivated use of the word "addict" as it manipulated to-day, then every bugger in the UK and Ireland is a nicotine addict. Loads of people drink tea (contains nicotine), loads of people consume the solanaceae (nightshades): tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, pimentos, lettuce, peppers, etc, etc, and they all contain nicotine!


Enough of this bullshit about nicotine consumption already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I didn't see it as vapers coming out with the silly comments, I assumed they were just brainwashed general members of the public. Comments such as "just replacing one addiction for another" is certainly not anything a vaper would say.

Lilli Marlene III said...

The anti smoking/vaping hysteria will continue to escalate as long as the
smoking/vaping cap doffing,pavement kissing,crawling,yellow streaked ,keyboard tickling mutants carry on the current path of "protest".
Hardly surprising the Puritanical crackpots treat the invisible mutterers with
such disdain. Imagine having this army of ghosts on the Somme or Normandy beaches, Bratwurst for breakfast and Schnitzel for tea(northtalk for evening meal)........Ich rauche noch eine Cigarette.

moonrakin said...

Heh - same happened in Norway for the first smoking ban..... then they went all Irish and made another... Once they'd lined all the media and state/local council facilities.

moonrakin said...

How about pens that look like cigarettes ? (red LED in the end they'll get banned too :-)

nisakiman said...

I believe the Greeks have introduced a smoking ban (doubtless under pressure from their masters in Brussels) about five times so far over the past few years, and it still hasn't stuck. All the bars and restaurants I go to provide ashtrays and most offices have ashtrays on the desks. I sometimes wonder if our Debs ever holidays in Greece? I'd love to see how she deals with being on the next table to a bunch of chain-smoking Greeks sitting under a 'no-smoking' sign (not an uncommon sight here).

DaveAtherton20 said...

Google Translate did the job, spot on. Lol

moonrakin said...

Yeah - back in 1991 (IIRC) - several policemen in Bergen took to puffing as they foot patrolled in the town centre and the previously non smoking airport at Flesland sprouted ashtrays on the open plan cafe tables.... I think a few restaurants installed smoke etraction systems and segregated dining - however accomodating smokers wasn't in "the plan". Ther have howvere been some heroic "outdoor" smoking areas ! - even since the second ban.

V Hale said...

If someone I know to be a landlord of the pub tells me to stop, as happened on one occasion, I know not to to back.

V Hale said...

Don't give them any ideas! I sucked my thumb until my late teens. No doubt nowadays this would be "highly concerning" as "it's an addiction" according to these prats

Vapeorama said...

"I demand that you ban those devices because the voices in my head tell me so!"