The Boston Globe reports that health officials in the city have voted to ban the use of e-cigarettes in the workplace.
The ban also covers "restaurant patios and decks".
Given that e-cigarettes pose no threat to anyone other than the user (and there is no compelling evidence to support even that claim), a ban seems unnecessarily restrictive.
At the very most it's a matter for employers to decide policy.
If however you consider e-cigarettes to be a harm reduction product, as many people do, a ban makes even less sense. Far from restricting their use, you would think that health officials would want to encourage it in order to reduce people's dependence on cigarettes.
But no. They prefer smokers to experience cold turkey, a policy fiercely opposed by the late quit smoking guru Alan Carr who considered workplace smoking bans to be hugely detrimental to those wanting to give up or cut down. (Cutting down, you may have noticed, is no longer an option. Tobacco control activists say smokers must quit - or die.)
Alternatively smokers should use only products manufactured and supplied by the pharmaceutical giants.
It seems that the humble cigarette, and anything resembling a cigarette, has taken on the mantle of witchcraft as a potentially harmful force. Consumers are already demonised. At this rate it can only be a matter of time before they are banished, imprisoned or worse for their steadfast wickedness.
Boscastle in Cornwall is home to the Museum of Witchcraft. It is said to house the world's largest collection of "witchcraft related artefacts and regalia". Perhaps they should add to the collection cigarette packs, lighters and e-cigarettes.
See: City puts restriction on use of e-cigarettes (Boston Globe)