Hi, I’m giving up smoking – fly me DELTA

E-cigarette may look like a cigarette, cigar or pipe so we have banned them.

It must be clear by now, even to the most rabid of anti-smokers, that smoking bans have absolutely nothing to do with health and everything to do with the denormalisation of smokers and their [legal] product of choice.

From what I can gather from my flying smoker friends, using this form of transport is pretty arduous; from the time you arrive at the check in desk to the time you check out at your destination.

It is no surprise then that smokers turn to other means of relaxation in the absence of a pucker tobacco product. Those other means being the smokeless e-cigarette or SNUS. SNUS has been banned in this country, in fact in all member states with the exception of Sweden, by the EU since 1992. The e-cigarette has been banned in some states in the US such as Oregon when anti-smoking guru and ambulance chasing lawyer, and all round lunatic,  John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) took a hissy fit against them.

Enter the Dragon Delta air.

Our friends from C.A.G.E. (Citizens Against Government Encroachment) have encountered Delta air’s ban on their planes and indeed one of their members wrote to them questioning the ban on the e-cigarette and, unbelievably SNUS.

Here is the letter sent to, and reply from, DELTA, reproduced on the C.A.G.E. blog, sent by one of their members.  First here is where DELTA states the bleeding obvious:

Thank you for contacting us through delta.com. We are sorry for the delay in responding to your message.

A device known as electronic cigarette or e-cigarette is available to the public.

- It is marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and used to assist users in their efforts to quit smoking.

- E-cigarette may look like a cigarette, cigar or pipe. [ ED: Is the penny dropping yet?]

- The cigarette makes a mist that resembles normal cigarette smoke. The mist dissipates quickly and is both odorless and colorless.

So where is the problem, you can’t smell anything, it’s a colourless, odourless mist for goodness sake! Where’s the bloody problem?

 
- Due to continued instances of passengers attempting to smoke real cigarettes on board and the potential concern from passengers, the use of electronic, simulated smoking materials including cigarettes, pipes and cigars, is prohibited on all Delta flights.

Ahh, not content with vilifying smokers on terra firma by associating them with the worst kind of mass murderer they now are the main instigators of air rage! And here was me thinking that air rage was the province of the alcohol drinker? (Drinkers, it will be your turn next.)

- While Delta / Delta Connection do not permit the use of electronic cigarettes on board, they are permitted in the passenger's carry-on luggage.

Well that’s a great help to those that want to give up smoking by alternative methods, isn’t it.

As you can imagine, dear readers, this cut no ice with the member of C.A.G.E. Canada who promptly replied, and I will not add any remarks as the reply speaks eloquently for itself.

Thank you for replying.

I know exactly what an electronic cigarette is, I own one myself. But it's not tobacco, or smokeless tobacco. It is not much different in principle than a pharmaceutical nicotine inhaler. Why would you allow those, or do you? It is only a substitute to smoking and as you say it is colorless and odorless and it contains absolutely no tobacco. Perhaps if the attendants would explain to the ''concerned'' assistance in the plane what this device is all about at the very beginning of the flight, they wouldn't be so ''worried'' about thinking someone is lighting up? This would not only enhance smokers' travelling experience, it would also appease those craving nicotine and you would have less of the incidents of people lighting up as you say. Why not offer complimentary e-cigarettes on board, or even sell them? That would make you stand out, wouldn't it? What good is an e-cigarette in the carry-on luggage?

But this doesn't explain why all smokeless tobacco is banned. What about SNUS? Why would you not tolerate that? Isn't enhancing your customers' flight experience part of good business?

It looks like a cigarette, cigar, pipe that emits an odourless, colourless vapour…but is it? Or could it be a fiendish instrument of torture to the anti-smoking airlines? Are smokers now terrorists?

Flying from the UK? Why not try Delta Air, your sharing, caring airline.

Hat Tip to C.A.G.E. Canada.

Blogger Tags: E-Cigarette, Delta airlines, flying, banned, SNUSS, Smoke rage, Air rage, Anti smoking hysteria