I have been smoking one of these devices in the stadium (West Stand seats), the fans bar and west stand hospitality suite openly and freely in front of all and sundry ever since the first day the stadium opened its doors.

Nobody in all that time and I've been to every home game has ever approached me and asked me not to use the device or been offended by it up until last nights game.

There I was at half time happily inhaling away, not causing anybody any intrusion or problem that I noticed a steward (G4S) who looked like he had nothing better to do cast his eye my way and with the most confused look on his face he decided to approached me.

Before he got to my seat I openly held the device aloft and took a huge drag from it and blew the vapour into the air so he could see it wasn't a real cigarette, I mean, aside from the fact that a vaper user will have taken the device from a pocket, not produced or used any sort of lighter, taken a few drags and then replaced it in their pocket, the lack of smell would be an obvious giveaway, as would the green, red or blue light on the end of the device inform this steward I wasn't actually smoking would it? There are a great many vaping devices that look absolutely nothing like analogue cigarettes, some that more closely resemble lava-lamps in fact, but even the ones that do are easy enough to distinguish.

I have seen signs all around the stadium informing me I cannot smoke inside the ground and I apply that to the letter of the law. (a)“smoking” refers to smoking tobacco or anything which contains tobacco, or smoking any other substance, and
(b)smoking includes being in possession of lit tobacco or of anything lit which contains tobacco, or being in possession of any other lit substance in a form in which it could be smoked. As I wasn't smoking what could be on the stewards mind?

As Frankly, in all but the most crowded of areas or frantic of crowds, the idea that a smoker might become confused enough to think the law no longer applies is insulting to smokers. I know I’d be insulted if someone told me I wasn’t clever enough to tell the difference between a lit tube of paper and tobacco leaves, and a battery-powered vapour-producing device.

The Health Act 2006, which brought into enforcement the smoking ban, also defines smoking as being in possession of any lit tobacco product and goes on to restrict smoking in certain places. e-cigarettes and personal vaporizers are non-flammable, do not contain tobacco or produce smoke and as a result allow smokers to use them anywhere including restaurants, bars, public transport, company cars, in the office, on a plane…almost anywhere? Right?

Wrong! Not according to the steward, even when I explained all the above to him and the fact that I had openly used the device everywhere in the stadium and nobody had approached me before. The steward kept on insisting I wasn't allowed to smoke in the stadium? No matter how many times I told him I was not smoking (I'm not quite sure how he couldn't comprehend that fact?) he then said would I like to speak to his boss? To which (by this time I'm getting pretty well pi**ed off with him, let alone having the feeling of being treated like a 10 year old school boy and embarrassed I have had to endure the attention of this steward) I said do what you want mate.

Nowhere in the stadium does it say I cannot use the device, it doesn't say it on my season ticket, it does not say it on the signs around the stadium with regards to smoking and it does not state it on my match ticket.

Since November 2011, The Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team – also known as the ‘Nudge Unit’ – has begun urging the government to encourage the use of smokeless nicotine alternatives, such as electronic cigarettes. The ‘Nudge Unit’ wants to explore and encourage new products that deliver nicotine but without the harmful chemicals and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke.

The Nudge Unit’s Annual Report:

The Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Teams’ Annual Update 2010-11 (page 7) states the following;

“If alternative and safe nicotine products can be developed which are attractive enough to substitute people away from traditional cigarettes, they could have the potential to save 10,000s of lives a year.”

“A review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) concludes that ‘nicotine, while addictive, is actually a very safe drug’. The Behavioural Insight Team is working with the Department of Health on how to encourage smokers to substitute to safer but nonetheless appealing sources of nicotine, noting that products that produce a fine vapour appear to reproduce the pleasant ‘hit’ without the harms associated with smoking.”

Now I know even the club and SMC have actively promoted campaigns to help supporters quit smoking via their facebook pages and official sites so surely they would encourage the use of an electronic device? It makes sense doesn't it?

Anyway the head steward came over to speak to me and again I reiterated that this was the first I'd heard that the device wasn't allowed in the stadium and I'd inhaled it everywhere as stated above. He said he would bring it up in his next team brief and took my name and seat number.

I would assume now that a sensible approach to using the device inside the stadium could pro-actively be sought as surely and especially the club and the SMC, Peel and the Council wouldn't want supporters again to be put off going to a match in light of the current attendances at the ground. Lets not forget the fact the SMC already discourage families who require the use of a pushchair from attending. After all you cannot simply keep building brick walls to discourage people from attending and consultation needs to encourage a fair deal for all if they want to increase attendances without this kind of discrimination.

I told the head steward for the time being I would be more discreet with the device and he smiled and left me alone. I just thought it was worth airing the subject on here and for anyone else who wants to use these devices to make it clear that currently the SMC do not have an understanding of the current law of being able to use the device anywhere and that it isn't actually smoking. As from what I've ever learnt in life there is no smoke without fire!

Cheers!

Just 80 minutes without puffing on an inhaler. Is that really so difficult?
I speak as an ex-smoker so possibly being "holier than thou"

Just for info, devices like this are already banned at the etihad and old trafford stadiums, one city fan was ejected from the ground and had his ST card taken from him, he is appealing the decision.

It depends on what you define as difficult? Any more than having to use the lavatory or eating a burger and chips or buying a drink, especially the consumption of alcohol? Speaking as an ex-smoker I would have assumed you would have known that answer and I can't remember the last time I only spent 80 minutes in the stadium? However in response to your quote the point I was making wasn't on the matter about going without.

Jesus christ.

Just keep using it and let them tell you stop or go to the toilet at half time, hardly a massive issue is it.

Thanks for the life story on e-Cigarettes though!

I can see this becoming a bigger issue and many places banning them. It doesn't matter whether something is legal or not, on private property the owner sets the rules. Photography is a completely legal pastime but it is banned by owners in many places - if security sees you taking photos in the Arndale, Printworks or parts of Spinningfields they'll tell you to stop.

Currently Iain there are no rules at the SCS that state you cannot use the device.



Do they have literature available and signs onsite informing you? If so then you don't do it.

I don't need to be treated as though I'm committing an illegal act even when I'm not and especially when I've not been informed/notified otherwise. An apology wouldn't go amiss?

Fair point.



Nope. In fact in Spinningfields there is no indication that you've stepped onto private land.

I agree with this and I'm a smoker. Just have one as soon as the game finishes!

Out of curiousity, what do you do when you go to the Cinema?

Correct me if I'm wrong BC, but is your issue (and mine) not so much surrounding the use of an e-cigarette, inasmuch as it's being treated like a child? That is, being ordered not to do something that is in no way offensive or harmful to others, yet you are ordered regardless because this is the culture of being a spectator today? That is, a culture that is excessively rigid in it's enforcement of nonsense rules masquerading under the banner of 'health and safety?' In turn, creating a bland, atmosphere-less pre-fabricated box in which it's 'customers' (gaw I hate being referred to, treated as a customer. So condescending and so typically corporate) begrudgingly oblige and conform to this most un-shedlike norm... Yuck!

There are many examples I can think of to support this claim (standing on yellow lines AT THE BACK OF THE STAND WHERE NOBODY WILL BE IMPEDED, yet there's a rule that must be obeyed so it's enforced without question. Tut!) but the one that stands out most is that regarding smoke-bombs. Granted, I've never seen one at Barton but then again I've stopped going so that's not to say they haven't been used there. Nevertheless, I've seen these completely harmless, non-flammable objects used at a couple of away grounds, met with a reaction by stewards that resembles a Daily Mail reader observing someone with a dark complexion bludgeoning a child to death, whilst on the way to claim the benefits he probably claims... (ftr, I'm not a Daily Mail reader nor do I subscribe to these views). Of course, I'm exaggerating what could just as easily be described as 'an over the top' reaction by stewards. (Ironically this post will be regarded as OTT too).

Meh, I appreciate such behaviour raises questions and makes people who are probably glad of the work (ie stewards) a bit concerned. However, I just feel that partly through a lack of cultural understanding, an insistence that they control the masses by nit-picking anything that gets close to the rules and desire to keep what is likely their only income, stewards are a bit too noticeable in many of the ways I'd rather they weren't.

(Sighs) Oh what I'd do for the relatively self-policing shed. Borrowing a popular football protest slogan, Gav, 'against contemporary corporate rugby league stadia.'

Oh what a pleasure it is to be wittering on about relative trivialities when a few short months back we nearly didn't have a club to complain about. Get in!

I'd say that pretty much sums it up Gav.

Yes of course I can comply, I haven't said otherwise but as we all well know just because of today's culture somebody who is applying rules may not necessarily be right in their actions and it should not go unchallenged. As Iain has stated, just by fact I have merely posted this subject I can see a think tank gathering now at the stadium thumbing through the rule book and working out how to provide a solution on making sure nobody what-so-ever brings one of these disgusting things into the stadium ever again - just because they can!

Harmless? Whilst I agree with the point in general, I've seen the evidence to suggest they're far from harmless, particularly used incorrectly by youngsters on the p*ss, which is how they usually are used in this country. And they normally look rubbish, but that's a major digression...

I do agree that the reaction to an e-cig is majorly over the top. I'm amazed at how much some people are dismissing it on here, as well. It's not so much the fact that he's having an e-cig, it's more the way in which the stewards act towards paying spectators. And don't think they'll only go for people who are genuinely doing something wrong...

Cheers GT!

I have been saying for a long time now the way fans are treated by the jumped up generals (so called stewards) needs addressing asap before more fans stop coming to our stadium. Some of the Castleford fans were complaining about there treatment regarding flags, Do we want any atmosphere in the stadium, I went to the back row of the west stand to stand up as I had pins and needles in my legs and within five minutes I had a steward telling me to sit down (no one behind/in front/left or right of me) the sooner we get back to the way it was run at the willows i.e. bit of banter with the stewards the better.

[iTheir[/i treatment with [itheir [/iflags? At least they were allowed somewhere to put them. We get nish.